First International Power and Energy Coference PECon 2006 34

November 28-29, 2006, Putrajaya, Malaysia

Power Flow Control Strategy for Electric

Vehicles with Renewable Energy Sources
Renato Rizzo, Member, IEEE, and Pietro Tricoli, Member, IEEE

engine. Compared to conventional vehicles, electric vehicles

Abstract--The paper analyses the benefits given by a powered by fuel cells offer zero or near-zero smog-forming
compound storage system with batteries and supercapacitors on emissions, higher fuel-economy, greater engine efficiency and
board of road electrical vehicles supplied by fuel cells. A control much quieter and smoother operations. However, the
strategy for the management of the energy is developed for the
autonomy of an electric vehicle is limited not only by the
maximization of the vehicle autonomy and for the increase of the
electrochemical battery life. The controller is based on two finite stored energy, but also by the efficiency of the whole power
state machines and it is implemented on the dc/dc converters that network and eventually also by the energy recovery capability
interface fuel cells and supercapacitors to the batteries. of the system [6]. Besides, the better is the traction drive
Experimental tests made on a sample electrical drive fully efficiency the higher the increase of the autonomy. For this
validate the effectiveness of the suggested control technique. reason, it is useful that fuel cells operate always close to the
point of their maximum efficiency. This condition can be
Index Terms--Dc-dc power conversion, electrochemical realized using the batteries as auxiliary storage devices and
devices, energy management, fuel cells, road vehicle electric
propulsion. interposing a dc/dc converter between the fuel cell and the dc
bus. For this configuration, a proper control strategy for the
I. INTRODUCTION management of fuel cell power flows has to be designed. The
battery supplies, hence, the extra power required by the
7ERO emission vehicles (ZEV) are a very promising
vehicle during accelerations, and recover the extra power
solution for reducing the air pollution in urban areas and
supplied by fuel cells during the periods of low load. A
for attaining health based air quality standards. ZEV are
battery can easily fit the requirements of the vehicle, apart
commonly powered by electrical motors supplied by on board
from the poor ability to recover braking energy and supply the
electrical sources. They make use only of electrical energy,
power required by highest accelerations.
which is traditionally supplied by electrochemical batteries.
Regarding the second problem, it has been widely shown
The wide experience collected by operating fleets of road
that the battery life, given by the number of charge and
electrical vehicles makes it possible the design of the battery
discharge cycles, is improved when current carried out by
size in agreement with the specific assignments required [1,2].
batteries never exceeds rating values given by the
A large number of experimental results so far achieved
manufacturer. Previous considerations lead immediately to the
[3,4,5] give evidence that two main problems have always to conclusion that traction systems of electrical vehicles benefit
be dealt with the use of electrochemical batteries as unique on
from auxiliary devices, which smooth current peaks and are
board energy source, i.e. autonomy and battery life. For the
capable of giving and regenerating electrical energy with high
former, the weight of the battery causes the well-known
efficiency. Supercapacitors seem to be very useful for both
limitation of the vehicle range below one hundred kilometers.
purposes, because they have electrical performances that are
The use of fuel cells as primary energy source overcomes the
complementary with battery ones. It is known that
problem of the limited autonomy, because hydrogen presents a
supercapacitors are electrochemical devices capable of
specific energy much greater than that of batteries. Fuel cells
reaching very high capacitance with volumes and weights
have captured worldwide attention as a clean power source for
many times smaller than those of traditional capacitors.
electric vehicles. Electric vehicles powered by fuel cells are
Supercapacitors have smaller inner resistances than
being developed by many auto-manufacturers, and have electrochemical batteries, but their voltage is quickly
generated interest and enthusiasm among industry, decreasing when they supply energy. Therefore, they appear
environmentalists and consumers. A fuel cell electric vehicle,
to be practically unessential if they are directly connected in
powered by an electric motor, promises the air quality benefits
parallel to an electrochemical battery. Supercapacitors used as
of a battery-powered electric vehicle, combined with the
auxiliary devices need suitable intermediate device for the
driving range and convenience of a conventional gasoline connection to the dc bus. Therefore, also the connection of
supercapacitors to batteries has to be realized by means of
R. Rizzo is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of dc/dc converters. The energy flows depend on the control
Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy (e-mail: renrizzo ounina.it). strategies of these converters both during accelerating and
P. Tricoli is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Naples Federico 11, Naples, Italy (e-mail: ptricoli aunina.it).
braking operations.
1-4244-0273-5/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE

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 35
In the power train of electrical vehicles, a combined which respectively make available to the system the powers
storage system is definitely an effective and useful solution for Pf, Pb and P,. However, these three powers are not
balancing the mismatch between the available energy supplied independent one on the others, because they have to satisfy
by the sources and the power required by the load. Benefits the algebraic equation stating that their summation is equal to
connected to the combined use of different storage devices is the power required by the load, PL. Such an hybrid system is
though subordinated to their synergic action and their therefore a physical system with two degrees of freedom. For
complementary use. Specifically, both the power flows into this reason, it is possible to select two auxiliary conditions and
and from each storage device have to be designed accurately it is convenient that these conditions involve optimized
and controlled according to a global energy management operations for the power train. The auxiliary condition set
strategy. This has to be designed with the aim of optimizing defines, hence, the control algorithm.
the energetic efficiency and of avoiding that irregular working The technical characteristics of fuel cells suggest, as an
conditions could reduce the life of the components. useful auxiliary condition, that the fuel cells operate with
A new control strategy for the management of the power constant output power:
flows in the power train of an electric vehicle supplied by fuel
Pfc Pfc,Max (1)
cells, electrochemical batteries and supercapacitors is
presented in the paper. This strategy is based on two The operating condition with constant power avoids that
independent control algorithms with a hierarchic structure. repetitive transients, among different power levels, could
The former algorithm drives the power electronic converter reduce the life of the fuel cells. The reference power Pfc,Max is
that operate as interface between fuel cells and the power corresponding to the maximum efficiency of the
electrochemical batteries; the latter drives the converter device. If the reference power is indeed set in the point of the
interconnecting supercapacitors and batteries. The control maximum efficiency, the losses are minimised and the vehicle
strategy has been programmed on real converters and has been autonomy is increased.
validated with experimental tests on a sample drive If the primary source supplies a constant power, Pf, the
configuration. Some relevant results are reported in the paper energy storage system has to compensate the difference
and commented. between Pf, and the load power, PL. The control strategy of
the power flow management has to share the power supplied
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND CONTROL STRATEGY by the energy storage system between the electrochemical
The requirements of the management of power flows in the batteries and the supercapacitors. This can be achieved setting
power train of the electrical vehicle imply that the fuel cells as second auxiliary condition an optimised working operation
and the supercapacitors are connected to the dc bus by means of electrochemical batteries. This condition is that both during
of dc/dc converters, as fig. 1 shows. In particular, the fuel cell the discharge and recharge periods the currents supplied by
requires a single quadrant dc-dc converter; the supercapacitors batteries are limited. The technical literature has dealt with the
require instead a bi-directional dc-dc converter, because they life reduction of batteries connected to the peak currents
need to be both charged and discharged. The converters supplied. At present, the common opinion is that peak currents
regulate the output power of each device changing their output involve a gradual deterioration of the active materials inside
voltages; in addition, they harmonize the operating voltages of the battery and, consequently, a reduction of performances
the devices with the voltage of the dc bus. As can be found and also of the life. Therefore, the control algorithm has to
commonly in the technical literature [7,8], the electrochemical limit the battery current to values lower then the reference
batteries are connected in parallel to the dc bus of the VSI current Ib,L:
inverter supplying the traction motor. Iib <Ib,L (2)
Pf- Batteries The electrochemical supercapacitors can be effectively used as
energy storage system for supporting the battery pack. They
can be used for supplying the short power peaks that the
batteries, driven with the current limitation, could not supply.
The control strategy of power flows is implemented by
Posta dc/dc
means of two different control algorithms on the digital signal
processors driving respectively the converter of the fuel cells
batrie an3uecaaios The rain tre and the converter of the supercapacitors. The former controls
CelectocemcaSupercapacitors
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the power system of an electric vehicle with the power flows of fuel cells, whereas the latter controls the
compound storage devices. power sharing between the supercapacitors and the batteries.
If reference is made to a power train with fuel cells, A. Control algorithm for the converter offuel cells
electrochemical batteries and supercapacitors, the main target As described in the previous section, the achievement of
of the control strategy is the evaluation of the out-out pDowers the maximum efficiency condition is obtained when the fuel
of each device. The block diagram of fig. I puts in evidence cells supply constant power equal to Pfc,Max Constant power
that there are one electrical source and two storage devices, operations of fuel cells implies that these recharge the battery

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 36
when the load power is lower than Pfc,Max This is obviously batteries from long term damages and the reduction of their
possible until the battery is completely charged, because operating life. However, this can be achieved only if there are
otherwise dissociation processes, involving release of not critical conditions or damages for the devices. One of
hydrogen, may arise inside the cells of the battery and lead to these is the overcurrent of supercapacitors, which can occur
an irreversible deterioration of the whole battery. These when the current requested by load is very high and/or the
processes start when the voltage of the battery cells is greater state of charge of supercapacitors is low. The control system
than a limit value, typically equal to 2.4 V for the lead-acid has to guarantee that the output current of supercapacitors, iS,
batteries. Previous considerations lead to the conclusion that never exceeds the maximum allowable current I,eMax indicated
the condition of constant fuel cell power is subordinated to the by manufacturer, both during charge and discharge periods,
condition that the battery is not damaged. When the battery i.e. jis < Isc,Max When this condition is not satisfied, the
approaches its maximum state of charge, the control algorithm control algorithm switches to the control of the supercapacitor
of fuel cell converter has to reduce the fuel cell output power current using Ih,eMax as reference value. The transition back to
in order to keep the battery voltage, Vb, under the maximum the battery current control occurs when the load decreases and
allowable value, Vb,Max. the current becomes again lower than the limit current. In
Therefore, the control algorithm switches from the fuel cell order to avoid that the natural fluctuations on the current i,
power control to the battery voltage control. In this condition, involve an instable behavior with permanent oscillations
the fuel cell works with reduced and variable power keeping between the battery current control and supercapacitor current
the battery voltage equal to the maximum voltage. The back control, both the transitions occur for threshold limits slightly
transition occurs instead when the load requires a power different. More specifically, the transition from battery current
greater than the PfcMax because the extra power required has to control to supercapacitor current control takes place when Ii, I
be supplied by the battery. Specifically, the transition happens > IscMax+, being Is,Max+ slightly higher than Is,Max Conversely,
when it is satisfied the condition, i.e. Pfc > PfcMax. the back transition occurs when liscl < Is,Max , where Isc,Max iS
The control algorithm of fuel cells has an internal structure slightly lower than Isc,Max.
organized with a discrete state machine. It is realized in Another aspect to be considered is that the contribution of
particular with two different states corresponding to the fuel supercapacitors is limited by their state of charge, which has
cell power control and to the battery voltage control, as fig.2 to be kept inside a predetermined range. The state of charge of
shows. In both cases, the controller regulate the output of the supercapacitors is directly connected to their terminal voltage,
dc/dc converter by means of PI regulators. vsc, and this imply that this voltage can ranges between an
upper limit VsC,Max and a lower limit Vsc,Mi,.
The upper limit is specified by the manufacturer, whereas
the lower limit has to be chosen with reference both to the
maximum step-up ratio of the converter (4-5 for standard
converters) and with consideration on the energetic efficiency.
Vb >
Pf, > P/c,Max
For a discharge with constant current, the efficiency of
supercapacitors decreases when the voltage decreases because
the output current and, consequently, ohmic losses are
increased. If operative voltages are too low, charge-discharge
efficiency could become unsatisfactory. The existence of a
lower limit reduces partially the energy available for the
discharge; however, since the energy available depends on the
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the states and the transitions of the fuel cell control square of the voltage, the residual energy that cannot be
algorithm.
discharged is negligible compared to the whole capacity.
When the voltage vsc reaches one of the limits, the control
B. Control algorithm for the converter of supercapacitors algorithm disconnects temporarily the supercapacitors from
Supercapacitors has to support electrochemical batteries for the dc bus. In particular, if vsc = Vs5,M1,, supercapacitors can be
limiting their discharge currents, ib, during load peaks of short reconnected and then recharged only when the power
duration. The supercapacitors are discharged when the battery requested by the load decreases until the battery current
current is higher than the reference limit current, Ib,L When becomes less than Ib,L Conversely, if V5c = Vsc,Max,
the power requested by the load decreases, the control system supercapacitors can be reconnected only when the power
makes supercapacitors recharged up to their maximum state of requested by load is so high that ib becomes greater than Ib,L
charge. The current supplied by the battery is controlled by The disconnection from the dc bus of supercapacitor has to
regulating the output voltage of the dc/dc bidirectional be made both when the controller regulates the battery current
converter with a proportional integral regulator, whose output and when it regulates the supercapacitor current. This means
signal represents the reference duty cycle of the converter. that this condition has higher level of priority respect to the
The limitation of the current ib represents an optimal current controls.
operative condition in order to preserve electrochemical For the implementation of the control algorithm can be

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 37
again used a finite state machine with hierarchic internal of the maximum operating voltage. The losses due to the
structure. The control algorithm can be configured as a system series resistance R, are therefore:
with four states, where each state corresponds to a specific
control action. The functional diagram of the states and the RC P2
PLC (4)
transitions from a state to another are reported in fig.3. 4,
c,max+
+ Ct
4 C
Supercapacitor
upper voltage limit J > Vsc,Max The charge period considered ends when the voltage is equal
to the maximum operating voltage of the supercapacitor. The
VSC > Vsc,Max ib > Ib,L final instant of time is then:

t* = 3 C Vi (5)
8p c,max.
Integrating (5) the total energy loss is finally:
t

EL = jPLcdt = R PClog2. (6)

ib < Ib,L VSC < Vsc,Min 0

Supercapacitor VSC < Vsc,Min The battery considered in this theoretical analysis is ideal, and
lower voltage limit J4 its representative equivalent circuit is a series of an ideal
Fig. 3. Block diagram of the states and the transitions of the supercapacitors voltage source, Vb, and a constant resistance, Rb. When the
control algorithm. battery supply constant power P, the losses are:
p2
III. EFFICIENCY COMPARISON BETWEEN BATTERIES AND (7)
PLb Rb
SUPERCAPACITORS
V
bVb2
In spite of a large technical literature dealing with In order to make the comparison, the total energy supplied by
integrated systems of batteries and supercapacitors, specific the battery has to be the same of that supplied by the
investigations on optimal solutions of energy management supercapacitor. Therefore, considering the time interval given
when are involved also braking operations have been missed in (5) and the power dissipated in (7), the total energy loss
until now. This is an important aspect is the management of during the discharge of the battery is:
the energy because it should be useful that the recovered
energy would be stored with the maximum efficiency. It has to 3 v2
be considered that electrochemical batteries can not be ELb 8 RbPC 2,ma
= (8)
Vb
recharged with every current with high efficiency. This aspect
limits the capabilities of the batteries during braking In conclusion, form (6) and (8), the condition required in
operations. It is preferable, therefore, that all the braking order that the losses of a supercapacitor are less than those of
energy is stored into the supercapacitor. This situation is a battery is:
efficiency effective only if the losses of the supercapactiors 2
3 3
are less than those of batteries for the same braking operation. R, < Vaxc,Ra
8log2 Vb
(9)
(9)
If the supercapacitor is charged with constant power P, the
differential equation representing its behaviour is the If condition (9) is satisfied in the design procedure of the
following: storing devices, the use of the suggested control algorithm
guarantees also the recovery of the braking energy with the
dvc
Cv
dt
P
maximum efficiency.
This result, based on simple theoretical considerations, has
The resolution of this equation leads to the following been verified with a numerical simulation where the
functions of the voltage and the current: supercapacitors and the batteries are recharged with constant
power. For both cases the load voltage is 240 V and the
braking current is 20 A. In the simulation, the supercapacitors
vc c V4 are connected to the load by means of a real dc/dc converter.
The supercapacitor have a maximum operating voltage, Vc,max,
_P equal to 150 V. The inner resistances of supercapacitors and
ic batteries are respectively R, = 0.1 V and Rb = 0.74 V. Fig.4a
4 2P ax

4 C
shows the recharge process of the supercapacitors until the
voltage Vc,max is reached. Fig.4b compares the energy stored in
considering that the initial condition of the voltage is the half electrochemical batteries and in supercapacitors to the energy

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 38

1 Af ~~~~~~~~~~~------E}Zng soe Xd7teilf-aalcct 40 ---- 4

0.5 1 1.5 2 25 t[.] °o5 1 I5 t[s]

(a) (b)
Fig. 4. Braking operations of with constant power: comparison between available energy and stored energy into the supercapacitors and into the batteries (a) and
diagrams of voltage and current of supercapacitors (b).

recovered during the braking. The energetic efficiency of the The combined system supplies the traction induction motor,
battery has been 93.8 00, whereas the supercapacitor whose rated power is 4.5 kW, through a voltage source
efficiency has been 95.8 00, according to theoretical results inverter. The mechanical load is a synchronous generator
given by (9). supplying a passive electrical load. The field current of the
synchronous machine can be regulated in order to change the
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS torque of the motor.
The suggested control algorithm has been verified by In the first test, shown in fig. 5, the load is increased until
experimental tests carried out on a sample drive supplied by the current drawn by VSI is 10 A (fig. 5c), then it is held
fuel cells, electrochemical batteries and supercapacitors, constant to this value for 1 minute and finally is decreased
whose configuration is represented in fig. 1. The fuel cells again to zero. During the cycle, the fuel cell current (fig. 5a) is
have a rated power of 1 kW with a dc output of 48 V. The constant according to the control strategy which implies
hydrogen needed for supplying the fuel cells (about 1 Nm3 /h) constant power operation of fuel cells. The battery current
is provided by an alkaline-based electrolyser. The battery pack (fig. 5d) is constant and equal to the reference value, equal to
is the series of 20 elements of 12 V, each one with a capacity 4 A, because the load extra power is supplied by the
of 4.5 Ah @C10. The supercapacitor bank is realised with two supercapacitors. When the supercapacitors reach their
modules of 75 V in parallel, each one with a capacity of 3.3 F. minimum allowable value, set to 40 V, the supercapacitors are
r 1 r 7

fWA ] V

20

10A

.0 1010, r" 00
40

200

0-10 20 40 60 SO t[s] 0 20 40 60 80 t[s]

(a) (b)
Il.ad[A]

30

20

0 20 40 60 80 t[s]

(c) (d)
Fig. 5. Experimental results of the first duty-cycle considered: fuel cell current (a), supercapacitor voltage (b), VSI dc current (c), battery current (d).

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 39
disconnected from the dc bus and the battery current presents operations. The control is implemented by means of two
a step. When the load is again decreased, the battery current hierarchic control algorithm set-up in the interface converters.
returns to the reference value and the supercapacitors can be The proposed control technique has been experimentally
recharged. At the end of the cycle, the required load power validated on a sample electrical drive and it has evidenced
decreases and the supercapacitors can be recharged (fig. 5b). good performances in all testing conditions.
The second test has been made for verifying the effectiveness
of the fuel cell control algorithm. Figs.6 highlight that at the VI. REFERENCES
beginning of the test the fuel cell output power is lower than [1] E. Pagano, L. Piegari, and 0. Veneri, "Azionamenti con Sorgenti Miste
Pfc,max, corresponding to 14 A, because the battery voltage is di Energia Elettrica Contenenti Celle a Combustibile e Batterie di
Accumulatori Elettrochimici," in Proc. 2001 12° Seminario Interattivo
equal to Vb,Max, set to 275 V. After 25 s the load is suddenly Azionamenti Elettrici, Bressanone, Italy, pp. 185-202.
connected and consequently the dc bus voltage decreases, [2] E. Pagano, L. Piegari, and P. Tricoli, "Ultracap-based new electrical
because the battery supplies the extra power required. Fig. 6b drives for off-road vehicles and rovers," in Proc. 2003 Antriebssysteme
shows that, after the load peak, the fuel cells immediately fur Off-Road-Einsatze, Garching, Germany, VDI-Berichte 1793, pp. 97-
109.
increase their power up to the reference power. When the load [3] L. Piegari and R. Rizzo, "Experimental evaluation of charge laws for
current decreases and the battery reaches Vb,Max, the controller road vehicles batteries," in Proc.2001 International Vehicle Electronics
switches again from the fuel cell power control to the battery Conf, Dottori, Japan, pp. 17-20.
[4] L. Piegari, C. Tortora, and 0. Veneri, "A mathematical model of charge
voltage control. Therefore the fuel cells recharge the battery and discharge for lead batteries in electric road vehicles," in Proc. 2001
with reduced power. EVS 18, Berlin, Germany.
[5] L. Piegari and R. Rizzo, "State of charge monitoring for road vehicle
,)0 batteries," in Proc. 2002 IECON, 28th Annual Conf of the Industrial
5 Electronics Society, vol. 3, pp. 2578-258 1.
[6] S. Williamson, M. Lukic, and A. Emadi, "Comprehensive drive train
efficiency analysis of hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles based on
motor-controller efficiency modelling," IEEE Trans. Power Electronics,
vol. 21, issue 3, pp. 730-740, 2006.
[7] R. Mauldin, Y. Baghzouz, and R. F. Boehm, "Light-weight fuel cell-
battery hybrid vehicle demonstration project," in Proc. 2006 SPEEDAM,
International Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical Drives,
Automation and Motion, Taormina, Italy, pp. 223-228.
[8] M. J. Gielniak and Z. J. Shen, "Power management strategy based on
10) 2I0 410 t[S] 0 game theory for fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles," in Proc. 2004 60th
IEEE Vehicular Technology Conf, vol. 6, pp. 4422-4426.
(a)
VII. BIOGRAPHIES

I if 0 Renato Rizzo was born in Naples, Italy. He studied

at the University of Naples Federico II and received
the Degree in Electrical Engineering. Since 1994 he
is assistant professor at the University of Naples
Federico II. At present he is professor of
Electromechanical Design at the Faculty of
Engineering of University of Naples Federico II.
Prof. Rizzo is professor honoris causa of the
Of
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He
20 4t]
40 0)
is an IEEE Member, EAEEIE Member, treasurer of
(b) ANAE (the National Association of Electrical Drives in Italy). His researches
Fig. 6. Experimental results of the second cycle test: dc bus voltage (a), fuel are devoted to electrical machine and drives, and to their applications in
cell current (b). transport systems.
He published more than 70 scientific papers and 2 books and he
V. CONCLUSIONS participated to different research programs.

The use of fuel cells is very promising for future electric Pietro Tricoli (M'06) was born in Naples, Italy, on
vehicles. Auxiliary storage devices on board can improve September 8th 1978. He received the M.S. and the
vehicle performances and the global efficiency. The Ph.D. degrees both in Electrical Engineering from
the University of Naples Federico II, respectively in
integration of different devices requires preliminarily the 2002 and 2005. He is, at present, a post-doc research
definition of a proper control strategy for the management of assistant at the Department of Electrical Engineering
the power flows. In the paper a simple control strategy has of the University of Naples Federico II. His main
field of interests are the use of renewable energy
been proposed with reference to a system constituted by fuel sources for road electric vehicles and rovers, the
cells and a compound system of electrochemical batteries and control techniques of asynchronous machines both
supercapacitors as auxiliary storage device. The control as motors and generators, and the modeling of active filters.
Dr. Tricoli is author of more than 15 scientific papers published in
strategy developed keeps constant the fuel cell power and international journals and conference proceedings.
limits the battery current both during charge and discharge

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