Intelligent energy efficiency management, as an important part of the development of intelligent ships, can realize the automatic monitoring, analysis and autonomous decision-making of ship energy efficiency. Therefore, improving the level of ship energy efficiency and intelligence is of great significance. Based on the analysis of the rules and inspection guidelines of ship intelligent energy efficiency management, the current research status of ship energy efficiency optimization methods is systematically analyzed by focusing on the core issues of ship intelligent energy efficiency, including intelligent monitoring and system design, the application of big data on ship intelligent energy efficiency, intelligent optimization algorithms and models of ship energy efficiency. The shortcomings and challenges in the development of ship intelligent energy efficiency are proposed based on the research status, and the future development and research contents of intelligent energy efficiency optimization are prospected to provide reference for the development of the energy efficiency management of intelligent ships.