Energy Management and Control in Multiple Storage Energy Units (Battery-Supercapacitor) of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

This paper presents a new approach of energy management for a fuel cell electric vehicle traction system. This system includes a supercapacitor, a traction battery of valve-regulated sealed lead-acid type, a high-performance permanent magnet traction system, and a power electronics converter. Special attention was placed on the coordination for managing the flow of energy from several sources to treat the concerns of prolonged electric vehicle mileage and battery lifetime for drivetrains of electric vehicles. Connection to a supercapacitor in parallel with the electric vehicle's battery affects electric vehicle battery lifetime and its range. The paper used a study case of an all-electric train, but the used methods can be applied on hybrid or electric train cases. Fuzzy logic control and proportional integral control methods were used to control the electric vehicle system. The results of these two control methods were examined and compared. The simulation results were compared between the proposed electric vehicle system and the traditional system to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. Comparison of waveforms was made with and without the supercapacitor. The proposed optimized energy management strategy could improve the overall performance of the hybrid system and reduce the power consumption.