Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Hybrid electric system based on fuel cell and battery and integrating
a single dc/dc converter for a tramway
Luis M. Fernandez a,⇑, Pablo Garcia a,1, Carlos Andrés Garcia a,2, Francisco Jurado b,3
a
Department of Electrical Engineering, EPS Algeciras, University of Cádiz, Avda. Ramón Puyol, s/n. 11202 Algeciras (Cádiz), Spain
b
Department of Electrical Engineering, EPS Linares, University of Jaén, C/Alfonso X, No. 28. 23700 Linares (Jaén), Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a hybrid electric power system for a real surface tramway. The hybrid system consists
Received 16 August 2009 of two electrical energy sources integrating a single dc/dc converter to provide the power demanded by
Received in revised form 21 June 2010 the tramway loads (four electric traction motors and auxiliary services): (1) a Polymer Electrolyte Mem-
Accepted 31 December 2010
brane (PEM) fuel cell (FC) as the primary and (2) a rechargeable Ni–MH battery as electrical energy stor-
Available online 5 February 2011
age to supplement the FC over the driving cycle. According to the requirements of the real driving cycle of
the tramway, it was considered a 200 kW PEM FC system with two FCs connected in parallel and a 34 Ah
Keywords:
Ni–MH battery. The PEM FC and Ni–MH battery models were designed from commercially available com-
Fuel cells
Batteries
ponents.
Power conditioning system The power conditioning system provides the appropriate power for the tramway. It is composed of: (1)
Energy management system a unique dc/dc boot converter which adapts the FC output voltage to the 750 V traction standard dc bus;
Hybrid tramway (2) three phase inverters to drive properly each electric motors; and (3) a braking chopper to dissipate
excess of regenerative braking energy.
Suitable state machine control architecture is presented for the hybrid system, its objective being to
provide demanded power by the driving cycle, optimizing the energy generated. Following this objective,
a new state machine control strategy based on eight states decides the operating point of each compo-
nent of the system and a cascade control structure allows achieving the operating points determined
by the strategy.
Simulation results of the real driving cycle of the tramway check the adequacy of the hybrid electric
power system.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Problems relating to oil supply, pollution, and green house ef-
fects justify the need for developing of new technologies for trans-
portation as a replacement for the actual technology based on
internal combustion engines. FC promises as the best future in
transportation applications, because of they operate more effi-
ciently and practically null emission of polluting agents [1].
A FC hybrid propulsion system combining a FC as the prime
mover and a rechargeable battery or ultracapacitor (UC) as energy
storage system (ESS) presents as advantages [2]: (1) fast, additional
power is provided during peak demand periods, such as acceleration,
since the FC has a time-delayed response and a limited power out-
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 956 02 81 66; fax: +34 956 02 80 01.
E-mail addresses: luis.fernandez@uca.es (L.M. Fernandez), pablo.garcia@uca.es
(P. Garcia), carlosandres.garcia@uca.es (C.A. Garcia), fjurado@ujaen.es (F. Jurado).
1
Tel.: +34 956 02 80 25; fax: +34 956 01 57 34.
2
Tel.: +34 956 02 80 18; fax: +34 956 02 80 01.
3
Tel.: +34 953 64 85 18; fax: +34 953 64 85 86.
put; (2) the size of the FC is reduced, and thus the cost, since the
ESS system are generally cheaper than an FC operating on a per-kilo-
watt basis; (3) the recovery of regenerative braking energy and stor-
age in the energy storage device are enabled, which increases the
overall efficiency of the vehicle; (4) this control strategy ensures that
the FC operates more often in the high-efficiency region. A disadvan-
tage is the increased capital cost associated with hybrid propulsion
system. However it is justified under some circumstances. Public ur-
ban transportation is a very interesting field for application of FC hy-
brid propulsion. The ‘‘cordless’’ operation allows catenaries to be
avoided in historical centers of cities, and allows more flexibility
and simplification of infrastructure [3].
Among the types of FC, the PEM FC is the best option for public
transport because of its high-power density, specific power, low
operating temperature, longevity, efficiency, good dynamic behav-
ior, and relative ability to rapidly adjust to changes in power de-
mand [4,5].
Batteries used in FC vehicles have a higher specific energy than
UCs, therefore they can provide extra power for a longer period of
time [6]. Typically, today’s commercially available UCs deliver only

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2010.12.028
2184 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192

Nomenclature

FC system Vact activation over voltage, V

E0cell standard-state reversible voltage, V Vcell cell voltage, V
Ecell Nernst’s instantaneous voltage, V Vcond concentration over voltage, V
F Faraday‘s constant, C mol1 Vfc FC output voltage, V
IFC FC current, A Virrev irreversible voltage or the loss voltage, V
KH2 hydrogen valve molar constant, kg s1 bar1 Vohmic ohmic over voltage, V
KO2 oxygen valve molar constant, kg s1 bar1 Wairflow inlet air flow, kg s1
MH2 molar mass of hydrogen, kg mol1 WH2flow inlet hydrogen flow, kg s1
MO2 molar mass of oxygen, kg mol1 xO2 oxygen mass fraction in air
Mv dry air molar mass, kg mol1 kO2 oxygen excess ratio
N number of series FCs in stack
Ncell number of cells Battery
pan total pressure in the anode, bar Pa1 A exponential voltage, V
pcat total pressure in the cathode, bar Pa1 B exponential capacity, A1 h1
pH2 hydrogen partial pressure, bar Pa1 Ebat no load battery voltage, V
pN2 nitrogen partial pressure, bar Pa1 Eo constant voltage, V
pO2 oxygen partial pressure, bar Pa1 Ibat battery current, A
pwater water partial pressure, bar Pa1 Kp polarization voltage, V
PFCT FC output net power supplied by the two FC systems, W Q battery capacity, A h
Pstack FC total power without considering the power consumed Ri internal resistance, O
by the compressor, W Ubat battery voltage, V
qin
H2 hydrogen input flow, kg s1
qout
H2 hydrogen output flow, kg s1 Energy management system
r
qH2 hydrogen flow that reacts, kg s1 Pbat battery power, W
qin
O2 oxygen input flow, kg s1 Pbat max maximum battery power, W
out
qO2 oxygen output flow, kg s1 Pbat min minimum battery power, W
qrO2 oxygen flow that reacts, kg s1 Pbr power dissipated in the braking resistor, W
RH2 hydrogen gas constant, J kg1 K1 Pfc FC power, W
RO2 oxygen gas constant, J kg1 K1 Pfc max maximum FC power, W
Rg ideal gas constant, J kg1 K1 Pfc min minimum FC power, W
T absolute temperature, K Pfc opt optimum FC power, W
Tatm ambient absolute temperature, K Pload tramway load demand, W
U fH2 utilization factor of hydrogen SOCmax maximum SOC, %
Van volume of anode, m3 SOCmin minimum SOC, %
Vcat volume of cathode, m3

one-tenth of the energy of a battery of comparable weight.
Nevertheless, UCs deliver energy much faster than a battery does,
and are rapidly gaining ground in a market, already being courted
by battery manufacturers. However, it is also true that FC–UC vehi-
cles are rarely used because of the high powertrain cost [7]. For
that reason, a hybrid propulsion system with an FC and battery is
the option mostly used in FC propulsion systems to operate high
power hybrid bus, but overall high-power locomotives, railcars,
or tramways.
There are several studies dealing with the application of hybrid
system based on FC to city buses. Refs. [8–11] describe hybrid vehi-
cles powered by an FC and battery, in which the battery is directly
connected to the dc bus. The hybrid systems proposed in each case
are the following: a 40 kW PEM FC and Ni–MH battery [8]; a 30 kW
PEM FC and lead–acid battery [9]; two PEM FC stacks with a rated
power of 40 kW and a Ni–MH battery [10]; and a 80 kW PEM FC
and Ni–MH battery [11]. In these works, the control system deter-
mines the operating point of the FC converter, depending on the
load power and the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery. Another
possible configuration for a hybrid bus is a 65 kW PEM FC, a
lead–acid battery and a UC [12]. In this case, the battery is also di-
rectly connected to the dc bus, whereas the UC is connected via a
bidirectional dc/dc converter. The control system defines the FC
and UC power, depending on the power required by the bus, the
battery SOC and the UC SOC.
However, there are very few projects or references dealing with
the application of hybrid system based on FC to locomotives, rail-
car or tramways, because this technology has not been considered
focus of interest for these applications, and has not started up re-
search works. A North American consortium is developing a
1.2 MW large fuel cell hybrid locomotive for potential military
and commercial applications [13,14], which is the world’s largest
fuel cell-powered vehicle. It presents a 250 kW PEM FC as primer
mover and batteries as auxiliary power/energy storage device,
which allow transient power around 1100 kW to be achieved. Ja-
pan’s Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) is developing a
120 kW PEM fuel cell-powered railcar [15]. East Japan Railway
Company (EJRC) [16] is developing a FC hybrid railcar by modifying
a prototype railcar based on a hybrid diesel–electric system. It is
fitted with two 65 kW PEM FC and a 19 kW h lithium ion battery
connected to the dc bus directly to provide additional power on
steep gradients or when accelerating.
This paper focuses on describing the configuration, modeling
and control of a hybrid tramway based on FC and battery, with a
rated power of 540 kW. The hybrid system is developed for a real
surface tramway, the Metro Centro, that serves the centre of Seville,
a city in Spain. Currently, it operates as catenary-powered tram-
way, and requires overhead line and pantograph. One of the objec-
tives of the Ecotrans research project, leaded by a Spanish
consortium and supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science
and Technology, is to retrofit it to FC–battery hybrid tramway. In
this mode, eliminating the infrastructure associated to catenary.
This paper presents advances made in this project. The hybrid
system considered for this tramway is composed of two 127 kW
 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192 2185

PEM FC from Nuvera [17] with unidirectional dc/dc converter and a effect on hybrid system can be accounted as a constant average
34Ah Ni–MH from Saft [18] directly connected to the traction dc load [19] over 61 kW.
bus. A novel state machine control architecture is used for the en-
ergy management of this new hybrid system. The purposed FC hy-
brid system is assessed by simulations for the real driving cycle of 3. Fuel cell-battery hybrid system
the Metro Centro tramway.
Fig. 2 shows the proposed configuration of FC–battery powered
hybrid system for the tramway. The hybrid system is composed of:
(1) FC; (2) battery; (3) single dc/dc boost converter; (4) auxiliary
2. Description of the tramway
services module; (5) four traction motor drives; (6) braking chop-
per; and (7) energy management system (EMS).
The tramway is composed of bidirectional units made up of five
FC is the primary energy source of tramway. It is connected to a
articulated bodies resting on three bogies; the end ones are motor
dc/dc boost converter which raises the low dc voltage delivered by
bogies and the intermediate one is a trailer bogie. It develops
the FC to the traction standard dc bus.
70 km/h with a maximum capacity of 275 places.
A rechargeable battery is used as electrical energy storage unit
The tramway traction system supplies the two motor bogies via
to supplement the output of the FC during tramway acceleration
its inverter box. Each box consists of two independent inverters
and cruise and for energy recovery during braking. As explained
that supply the traction motors (one per wheel). Each bogie has
next, it has been sized so that it store sufficient energy and provide
four traction motors.
adequate peak power for the tramway to have a specified acceler-
Each traction converter box has a rated power of 300 kW with
ation performance and the capability to meet appropriate driving
supply voltage of 750 V dc. It consists of two completely indepen-
cycle.
dent inverters, each one supplying two 60 kW squirrel cage trac-
Tramway loads supplied from the two energy sources are the
tion motors.
auxiliary services and the traction system. The auxiliary services
The traction box includes two crowbar circuits, one per inverter.
module represents the power consumption due to the tramway
Each crowbar circuit consists of an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transis-
auxiliary equipment (lighting, fans, steering air conditioning sys-
tor (IGBT), a diode and an external dissipation resistor. Each brak-
tems, etc.). The tramway traction system is composed of four elec-
ing chopper branch connects to a braking resistor where the kinetic
tric wheel motor, each one composed of electric motor and dc/ac
power of the tramway and the over-voltages generated are
inverter.
absorbed.
Finally, the EMS determines the reference signals for the electric
The route of Metro Centro’s first phase takes 5 min approxi-
motor drives, the FC and the dc/dc boost converter in order to dis-
mately. This route presents four stops, two intermediate ones, with
tribute accurately the power from the two electrical sources. In
line tracing in surface crossing two typical urban zones. The first
addition, it determines the reference signal for energy dissipation
zone starts from the old town of the city, and the latter reaches a
in the braking chopper when required during regenerative braking.
more modern zone with avenues and wide streets.
The typical power–speed curve, recorder from the bidirectional
tramway route, is shown in Fig. 1. This curve can be considered as 3.1. Degree of hybridization FC–battery
starting point for design of tramway hybrid system. As shown,
power requirements on acceleration are very different of the rest; For hybrid electric locomotives, the degree of hybridization
with maximum power that reaches over 400 kW for durations less (DOH) is the ratio of FC power to the total power requirements.
than a minute when tramway stars or uphill movement. For the The DOH can be determined depending on the role of the ESS, cov-
rest of 660 s cycle, the power requirements are low or zero in stops ering peak transient demands, gradeability or acceleration perfor-
or braking events. On the other hand, braking events shows the mance, power-assist during the cycles or regenerative braking
regeneration capability of the system. energy recapture [19].
Besides the traction power, it is important considering electrical An easy way to obtain the minimum FC power requirements is
auxiliary services that include fans, steering air conditioning sys- to balance the energy consumed from the ESS during the driving
tems, etc. Although this loads will vary throughout the cycle, the cycle (including auxiliary services) to that returned to the battery

Fig. 1. Driving cycle of the tramway.

2186 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192

Fig. 2. Configuration of the FC–battery powered hybrid system for the tramway based on a single dc/dc converter.

After considering several simulated scenarios and commercially

Table 1 available components, a DOH of 42.8% was adopted for the pro-
Summary of tramway driving cycle characteristics.
posed hybrid system: (1) two 127 kW, 235 V Nuvera’s PEM FCs
Event Peak Duration Cumulative connected in parallel, with a total net power of 200 kW, due to
power (kW) (s) energy (kW h) the power consumption of the compressor; (2) a 34 Ah, 756 V Saft’s
Average power 174.4 662 20.6 Ni–MH battery as ESS with an overall rated power of 260 kW and a
Startup 389.3 5 0.3 peak power of 350 kW.
Power assist-accelerate 532.1 20 2.5
Power assist-decelerate 393.6 18 0.3
Gradeability 325.2 112 2.4 3.2. Fuel cell
Acceleration 528.5 8 0.7
Auxiliary services 61.5 – –
As previously mentioned, a PEM FC is the best option for public
Regenerative braking 469.5 18 0.3
transport. Thus, a commercial FC from Nuvera was considered in
this work [17]. Since this type of FC generates a nominal power
of 127 kW to 235 V, two of these FCs are connected in parallel in
by the FC [20]. Nevertheless, downsizing beyond the power level order to achieve a total net power of around 200 kW. The behavior
required for continuous gradeability should be avoided since it of this FC is represented by a reduced model, which is a simplifica-
led to dramatically increased energy requirements for the ESS; tion of the complete model described in [21]. The following simpli-
without considering the fuel economy or efficiency impacts of en- fications were applied to obtain the reduced model:
ergy storage as can be seen in [13].
Table 1 summarizes tramway driving cycle characteristics that  The gases are considered ideal.
can be considered for FC and ESS requirements. Some of them  The FC is fed with hydrogen and air.
are obvious, just like average power, auxiliary services or peak  The electrode channels are small enough so that the pressure
power requirements. Others need some considerations, like startup drop across them is negligible.
conditions that are necessary to compensate for the limited FC sys-  The exhaust of each channel is via a single orifice. The ratio of
tem performance; power-assist during the driving cycle is impor- pressures between the interior and exterior of the channel is
tant for ESS capability in transient peak power events or to large enough to consider that the orifice is choked.
improve the transient response.  Assuming that inlet oxygen and hydrogen coming respectively
Gradeability shows how the system can maintain tramway’s from compressor and tank present a stable mass flow, the sup-
performance in continuous speed requirements. In this case during ply manifolds have been eliminated.
112 s, the system has to drive at 15 km h1 with maximum  Return manifolds have been removed since the outlet flow of
requirements of 325 kW and a cumulative energy demand of any gas is considered to be proportional to its partial pressure
2.4 kW h. After each stop, a maximum power demand from the inside the channel.
tramway is required to maintain acceleration performance and  The humidifier and air cooler are considered ideal so that the FC
reaches a maximum of 528.5 kW during 8 s. operates at optimum temperature (80 °C) and with constant
Fig. 1 illustrates the regenerative energy capacity to choose the relative humidity.
battery that would be able to collect over the cycle and how the FC  The compressor is modeled by a first order system in order to
system must avoid depth of discharge. approximate its dynamic response.
Once the characteristics of the driving cycle have been consid-
ered it is necessary to specify the degree of hybridization. The FC The voltage generated by an FC is obtained from the sum of the
size must be up the average power requirements and avoid in- Nernst’s voltage, the activation over voltage, concentration over
creased energy requirements for the battery. On the other hand, voltage and the ohmic over voltage [22]. The PEM FC output volt-
these requirements depend on the specific roles that would be ex- age can be expressed by the Nernst’s instantaneous voltage Ecell
pected to fill in the control system strategy. and the irreversible voltage or the loss voltage Virrev.
 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192 2187

V fc ¼ Ncell  V cell ð1Þ

Cell voltage (V)

V cell ¼ Ecell  V irrev ð2Þ 0.9 FC model
 
Rg  T p 0.8
Ecell ¼ E0cell  ke  ðT  T ref Þ  ln 0:5H2O ð3Þ Nuvera FC
2F pO2  pH2 0.7
V irrev ¼ V act þ V conc þ V ohm ð4Þ 0.6

0.5
where E0cell
is the standard-state reversible voltage, Ke is a function 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
of the entropy change and the Faraday‘s constant, T is the FC tem- Current Density (A/cm 2 )
perature, Rg is the ideal gas constant, pH2O is the water partial pres-
sure, pO2 is the oxygen partial pressure, pH2 is the hydrogen partial
pressure, Vact and Vconc are the activation and concentration voltage 200

Power (kW)
drop, which are function of the current density (relation between Nuvera FC
150
the actual current fuel cell and the effective area of it), and Vohm is
100
the ohmic voltage drop depending on the FC internal resistance.
The hydrogen partial pressure can be calculated as: 50 Pstack

dpH2 RH2  T  in  0
¼  qH2  qout r
H2  qH2 ð5Þ 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
dt V an Current Density (A/cm 2 )
where RH2 is the hydrogen gas constant, T is the temperature at the Fig. 3. (a) FC polarization curve and (b) FC power curve.
anode, Van is the volume of anode, qinH2 is the hydrogen input flow,
qrH2 is the hydrogen flow that reacts in the anode, which is obtained
through Faraday‘s Law. total power generated by a FC without considering the power con-
N  IFC sumed by the compressor, Pstack.
qrH2 ¼ ð6Þ In addition, the transient response of the real FC is also consid-
2F
ered in the model implemented in this work. Thus, it is imple-
where N is the number of cells necessary to achieve the FC output mented that the FC takes less 2 s to change its production from
voltage, IFC is the actual current generated by the FC and F is the 10% to 90% of the rated power, such as specified in [17] for the
Faraday‘s constant. commercial FC from Nuvera.
The hydrogen output flow qout H2 can be calculated through the
relation between the molar flow of hydrogen and its partial pres- 3.3. Boost converter
sure inside the channel. This relation can be expressed as [22]:

qH2 K an A classical dc/dc boost converter [23,24] is selected as FC power

¼ pffiffiffiffiffi ¼ K H2 ð7Þ converter, which adapts the dc voltage supplied by the FC, 235 V at
pH2 MH2
its rated power, to the 750 V traction standard dc bus. It is com-
qout
H2 ¼ K H2  pH2 ð8Þ posed of a high frequency inductor L1, an output filtering capacitor
C1, a diode D1, and a main switch S1, as shown in Fig. 2. Switch S2 is
Similarly, the oxygen partial pressure can be obtained as:
a shutdown device for test security to prevent the FC stack from
dpO2 RO2  T  in  short circuits in case of accidental destruction of S1, or faulty oper-
¼  qO2  qout r
O2  qO2 ð9Þ
dt V cat ation of the regulator. It was modeled using the two-quadrant
N  IFC chopper model included in SimPowerSystems of Simulink [25].
qout
O2 ¼ ð10Þ This converter is controlled by a current control loop. Effective
4F
qout control of the fraction of time that the converter is operating (duty
O2 ¼ K O2  pO2 ð11Þ
cycle) permits the FC current control. By acting on the switch S1
where RO2 is the oxygen gas constant, Vcat is the volume of cathode, gate signal, it is therefore possible to determine the distribution
qin ou r
O2 ; qO2 t; qO2 are the input, the output and the reacted oxygen in the of the power load between the two energy sources, FC and battery.
cathode, respectively.
Other FC components to be modeled are the compressor, input 3.4. Battery
hydrogen valve, humidifier and air cooler. The compressor is the
responsible of the oxygen control incoming in the cathode. In this Many battery systems have been tested in hybrid vehicles
work, the compressor is modeled by a first order system in order to (transit buses, light trucks and tramways), using Pb–Acid, Ni–Cd
approximate its dynamic response. The input hydrogen valve is or Ni–MH. Practical experience shows that Ni–MH, in spite of its
controlled in order to minimize the difference of pressure between higher cost, is the most suitable system in terms of endurance
the anode and cathode [22]. Furthermore, the humidifier and air and reliability [26]. As a result, the tramway hybrid system devel-
cooler are regarded as ideal so that the FC operates at optimum oped in this work includes an Ni–MH battery, whose characteristic
temperature (80 °C) and a constant relative humidity [22]. parameters were selected from a commercial battery module [18],
Fig. 3a represents the FC polarization curve obtained with the Saft’s NHP 10-340 12 V, 34 Ah. This battery is specifically designed
model used in this work and the real polarization curve of the com- for high-power applications, such as hybrid tramways. It was mod-
mercial FC from Nuvera. In this figure, it can be observed the eled by the Ni–MH battery model included in SimPowerSystems
similarity between both curves in the common operating region [25]. The battery voltage can be expressed as:
of the FC, which corresponds from the connection of the stack to
U bat ¼ Ebat  Ri  Ibat ð12Þ
0.95 A/cm2 approximately.
In Fig. 3b it is represented: (1) the output net power supplied where Ubat is the battery voltage; Ebat is the no load voltage; Ibat is
by the two FCs, PFCT, which is calculated as the difference between the battery current; and Ri is the internal resistance, which is as-
the total power generated by the two FCs and the power consumed sumed to be constant during the charge and the discharge cycles,
by the compressors in order to impulse air to cathode; and (2) the and which does not vary with the amplitude of the current.
2188 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192
The no load voltage during the charging or discharging of the
battery depends on the battery current, extracted capacity, and
hysteresis phenomenon of the battery during the charge and dis-
charge cycles. It can be calculated as follows [25]:
Q  Q
Edischarge ¼ Eo  K  i K   it þ fhyst disc ðiÞ
Q  it Q  it
Q  Q
Echarge ¼ Eo  K  i K   it þ fhyst char ðiÞ
jitj þ 0:1  Q Q  it
where Eo is the constant voltage; K is the polarization constant or
polarization resistance; i is the low-frequency current dynamics;
i is the battery current; it is the extracted capacity; Q is the maxi-
mum battery capacity, and fhyst_char(i) and fhyst_disc(i) are functions
of the battery current, which represent the hysteresis phenomenon
of the battery during the charge and discharge cycles.
When Ni–MH batteries are used for public transport applica-
tions, it is best to keep the stage-of-charge (SOC) as close to 50%
as possible; or within 30–70%, because the coulombic charge effi-
ciency is very high at such SOCs [27]. Thus, the implemented mod-
el calculates the battery SOC as follows [25]:
 R  ing resistor, when required. The second subsection explains the
i  dt
SOCð%Þ ¼ 100  1 
Q
3.5. Traction motor drives
The tramway traction system is represented by four electric
motor drives. Each one is composed of a 120 kW, 625 V, 50 Hz squir-
rel-cage induction motor, a three phase inverter, and the inverter
controller. In this work, it was modeled by using the space vector
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Voltage Source Inverter (VSI)
induction motor drive model included in SimPowerSystems [25].
VSI is used to regulate the speed of induction motor by chang-
ing frequency and voltage. The inverter controller is responsible of
the VSI control. It presents a speed controller and a space vector
modulator (SVM). The speed controller, which is based on a PI reg-
ulator, controls the motor slip. In this controller, the slip value
computed by the PI regulator is added to the motor speed in order
to produce the demanded inverter frequency. The latter frequency
is also used to generate the demanded inverter voltage in order to
maintain the motor V/f ratio constant. From the inverter demanded
frequency and voltage, the SVM determines the pulses which acti-
vate the inverter switches at the proper time, and thus the motor
speed can be adjusted to the desired speed.
3.6. Braking chopper
In regenerative braking, some of the kinetic energy is converted
into electrical energy and stored in the battery, in order to be used
during the next acceleration, or whenever else needed. However,
part of the regenerative braking energy must be dissipated in the
resistor of the braking chopper when it cannot be absorbed by
the battery due to its limitations.
The braking chopper absorbs the energy produced by motors
deceleration when required. It is modeled by a current source par-
allel with the dc bus. In this case, the control system determines
the effective resistance to be required to dissipate the power, and
thus the current is calculated from the dc bus voltage and the effec-
tive resistance.
3.7. Auxiliary services
As previously mentioned, the tramway presents a power con-
sumption of 61 kW due to the auxiliary services. In this work, this
load was modeled by simplicity as a controlled dc current source
connected to the dc bus, whose current is a function of the power
consumption and the dc bus voltage.
4. Energy management system
ð13Þ
Note that FC has a slow dynamic response, so that battery has to
supply transient energy demand and peaks load. Furthermore, the
ð14Þ braking chopper must operate to dissipate regenerative braking
energy when it cannot be absorbed by the battery due to its
limitations.
In fact, the aim of tramway EMS is to provide the demand
power, optimizing the energy generated by the system and order-
ing the operation of braking resistor when required during regen-
erative braking. Following this objective, a new control strategy is
presented. It combines a state machine control strategy based on
eight states and a cascade control structure composed of two con-
trol loops.
This section has been divided in two subsections. The first sub-
section shows the control strategy used to obtain the reference
powers for FC and battery and the power to be dissipated in brak-
ð15Þ cascade control, which is responsible for the appropriate operation
of FC and battery in order to achieve the operating points deter-
mined by the state machine control strategy.
4.1. State machine control strategy
The state machine control strategy is based on eight states in
order to decide the operating point for each component of the
power conditioning system. It generates the reference power for
FC and battery and the power to be dissipated in braking resistor.
Furthermore, this strategy tries to avoid continuous changes in FC
reference power, since the FC dynamic response is slow. Thus, the
changes in the reference power will occur when the hybrid system
components reach their limitation. In this case, it has been consid-
ered the following limits: the maximum and minimum values for
FC power (Pfc_max, Pfc_min), battery power (Pbat_max, Pbat_min), and bat-
tery SOC (SOCmax, SOCmin). Therefore, sometimes FC operates at
constant power (load leveling strategy) and other times it adapts
the power generated to the load demand (load following strategy).
The state machine control strategy determines the operational
state according to the demanded load, the tramway speed and the
battery SOC. It has been considered three levels for the battery
SOC: high SOC (65%), normal SOC (42–65%) and low SOC (<42%).
Next, the eight states considered in the control strategy are detailed.
(1) State 1: High SOC and Pload 6 Pfc_max. FC operates with load
following strategy between its minimum power and rated
power. As the battery cannot be charged due to its maxi-
mum SOC, the braking resistor will operate if the demanded
load is less than the FC minimum power.
(2) State 2: High SOC and Pload P Pfc_max + Pbat_max. This state must
not take place because hybrid system has been designed so
that FC and battery operating in a collaborative way can sup-
ply load power demand at all time.
(3) State 3: High SOC and Pload = [Pfc_max, Pfc_max + Pbat_max]. FC
operates at maximum power, and the power generated by
the battery will be the difference with the load power
demand; this way the battery SOC decreases.
(4) State 4: Normal SOC and Pload < Pfc_opt. FC is demanded to gen-
erate its optimal power, battery is charging and braking
resistance operates if the battery cannot take all the regener-
ative power. If in this state, the battery reaches a high SOC,
the system would change to the state 1, so that the FC would
decrease the generated power, and thus its efficiency.
 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192
Fig. 4. Cascade control structure.
(5) State 5: Normal SOC and Pload = [Pfc_opt, Pfc_max]. In this state,
the battery is charged, and thus its SOC increases. On the
other hand, FC operates with load leveling or load following
control strategy depending on the demanded load. FC oper-
ates to its maximum power (load leveling control strategy)
when the demanded load is higher than the difference
between maximum FC power and maximum battery power,
and otherwise it operates with load following.
(6) State 6: Normal SOC and Pload P Pfc_max. This state is similar to
state 3, where FC operates at maximum power and the bat-
tery supplies the necessary power to cover load demand, so
that the battery SOC decreases.
(7) State 7: Low SOC and Speed = 0. If the battery SOC reaches the
low level and the tramway is stopped, FC generates the min-
imum power demanded by the tramway plus an extra power
that will charge the battery.
(8) State 8: Low SOC and Speed > 0. The FC must generate the
demanded load plus the maximum charge power of the bat-
tery. This performance is limited between its optimum
power and nominal power values. Thus, the braking resistor
will work if the battery reaches its maximum charge power.
4.2. Cascade control structure
This control allows the FC and battery to achieve the operating
points determined by the state machine control strategy according
to the operating state. This cascade control is composed of two
control loops, as shown in Fig. 4. The outer loop controls the bat-
tery power and. One inner loop controls the FC generating current
and another inner loop determines the incoming hydrogen in the
FC anode.
(1) Outer control loop: As mentioned previously, control strat-
egy generates the reference power for the battery. From
the error between the battery reference power and the
actual power, a PI controller generates the FC reference cur-
rent for the inner control loops. This current is limited
according to the maximum and minimum currents that FC
can generate.
(2) Inner control loops: These are two parallel and independent
control loops. Both of them use the error between the FC
current reference and the actual current in PI controllers.
One of them generates the hydrogen incoming at the FC
and another one determines the duty cycle of dc/dc boost
converter.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Simulation results
The proposed hybrid system and control strategy have been
implemented in MATLAB-SimulinkÒ and tested for the real drive
cycle of Metro Centro tramway. It consists of a symmetrical route
2189
of going and return, which last 660 s and that is why only 330 s
have been simulated corresponding to half of the drive cycle or
to the outward route. The following figures show the simulation
results.
Firstly, the speed and the mechanical power required by the
tramway during this route are depicted in Fig. 5. As it was men-
tioned in the description of the tramway, the cycle is basically
composed of four trips and four stops. The first one lasts about
12 s. It consists of an acceleration and deceleration, reaching the
tramway a maximum speed of 20 km h1. The following two trips
are very similar; both of them last about 60 s, and include acceler-
ations and decelerations. However, these trips show little differ-
ences in the maximum speed and speed changes. The three first
stops endure the same time, about 15 s. The fourth trip is com-
pletely different; it is the longest, about 120 s. In this case, the
tramway maintains a constant speed of 15 km h1 along the whole
trip. Besides, the fourth stop time is higher, about 60 s.
As mentioned previously, each traction motor is controlled by a
space vector PWM VSI drive. Fig. 6 shows the response of one of the
traction motors, where the reference and motor speeds are de-
picted. As observed, the speed control is quite good, enabling the
motor to follow the reference speed quite well.
Fig. 7 shows the dc bus and FC voltage, and the duty cycle of the
boost converter along half driving cycle of tramway. As can be ob-
served, the FC and dc bus suffer voltage changes at each accelera-
tion and deceleration.
Figs. 8 and 9 show the power of each one of the components of
hybrid system: load, FC, battery and braking chopper.
For a better understanding of the hybrid system performance, it
has been represented the battery SOC and the operating states of
the control strategy along the driving cycle, as depicted in Fig. 10.
a 60
Speed (km/h)
40
20
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s)
b 500
Power (kW)
0
-500
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s)
Fig. 5. (a) Tramway speed and (b) mechanical power.
2190 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192

a
Rotational speed (rpm)

3000
300
nref

FC power (kW)
2000 nmotor
200

1000
100

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 6. Motor rotational speed.
b
500

Battery power (kW)

a 1000
Vdc bus 0
Voltage (V)

800

600
-500
Vfc 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
400 Time (s)
200 Fig. 9. (a) Fuel cell power and (b) battery power.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s)

b 0.8
a 70
0.7 Battery SOC (%)
Duty cycle

65
0.6
60
0.5
55
0.4
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 50
Time (s) 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s)
Fig. 7. (a) Voltages at dc bus and FC and (b) duty cycle of boost converter.
b 8

a
States

4
500
Load power (kW)

0
0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s)

-500 Fig. 10. (a) Battery SOC and (b) operational states.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (s)
the high power demanded by the tramway, so that the battery SOC
b will decrease. However, the SOC level would not change immedi-
300 ately but after a small margin of hysteresis to avoid continuous
Braking chopper
power (kW)

200 changes in machine states.

100
0 through the states 4, 5 and 6. System starts in state 4. When the
-100
0 50 100 150
Time (s)
Fig. 8. (a) Load power and (b) power dissipated in the braking chopper.
It has been considered an initial battery SOC of 63%, so that the
battery starts to work with normal SOC. For this SOC, both the
charge and discharge of the battery is allowed. As observed in
Fig. 10a, the SOC increases along the driving cycle. During the first
250 s the battery SOC fluctuates, with a global increase, and only
the states machines 4, 5 and 6 are adopted by the hybrid system
as observed in Fig. 10b. After that the battery reaches its high
SOC of 65% and the system adopts the states corresponding to high
SOC. When the load power is minor than FC maximum power, the
system adopts the state 1. With higher load power, it is adopted
the state 3, in which the battery supplements to the FC to provide
The first trip (about the first ones 15 s) only presents accelera-
tion and deceleration. During the trip, the hybrid system passes
tramway accelerates, it demands higher power, so that the system
200 250 300 changes to state 5 and immediately to state 6, where the FC tries to
generate its maximum power and the battery supplements to FC
producing the rest of power required by the tramway during the
acceleration. In case of deceleration, it is produced regenerative
braking (negative load power), so that the system passes to state
4. In this state, part of regenerative power is used to charge the bat-
tery (which is limited to its maximum value) and the rest one is
dissipated in breaking resistor when it is necessary. Once stopped
the tramway, only the auxiliary services are necessary to be fed.
During the second and third trips, the hybrid system acts in
similar way. With acceleration, the state changes to 5 and immedi-
ately to state 6 if the demanded power is higher, and the system
returns to state 4 with decelerations.
The fourth trip starts at 160 s, and presents acceleration not as
high as the previous ones. However, it is achieved a level of
 L.M. Fernandez et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 2183–2192
demanded load higher than the maximum possible power gener-
ated by the FC, so that the system has to change to state 6, although
just for a few seconds. The fast dynamic response of the battery
makes this possible. After starting, the tramway maintains constant
speed for 110 s. As mentioned previously, the battery achieves high
SOC at 250 s, when the tramway operates at constant speed. From
250 s, the hybrid system adopts the state 1 during almost the rest
of the simulation. In this state, the FC operates with load following
strategy between its minimum power and rated power. The battery
power is almost zero, so that its SOC is keeping almost constant.
During the constant speed operation, the traction system requires
little gradeability performance at 270 s. In this case, the hybrid sys-
tem acts changing the state from 1 to 3, in which the battery supple-
ments to the FC to provide the high power demanded by the
tramway, so that the battery SOC decreases. When the load power
decreases during this gradeability performance, it can be observed
that the braking resistor dissipates the energy excess in order to
avoid the charge of battery and thus the SOC increase. The tramway
brakes softly at 280 s, and as can be observed the braking resistor
dissipates the regenerative energy due to the tramway deceleration
in order to avoid the charge of the battery. The tramway stays
stopped at the last station, from where it will start the return trip.
5.2. Discussion
Finally, the proposed configuration for the hybrid system and
the results of this work are compared with those from other inves-
tigations in order to place this work in perspective with other works
in the field of hybrid system for high power transport application.
Ref. [8] presents a similar configuration to that used in our
work: a FC system with boost converter and a Ni–MH battery con-
nected directly to the dc bus. In this case, a fuzzy logic control is
applied, which determines the FC power reference from the power
demanded by the load and the battery SOC. As performed in our
work, the FC is demanded to operate between a maximum and
minimum power in order to operate the FC system efficiently.
Other works with similar configuration for a hybrid vehicle pow-
ered by a PEM FC and Ni–MH battery are presented in [10] and
[11]. Ref. [10] proposes an adaptive supervisory control strategy
for a hybrid city bus, which takes into account vehicle accessorial
power, battery charge sustaining, and FC durability. Ref. [11] de-
scribes an optimal control strategy for a hybrid city bus based on
a time-triggered controller area network. It is composed of an
equivalent consumption minimization strategy and a braking en-
ergy regeneration strategy. The results of these works demonstrate
the capability of the proposed hybrid system to provide the power
demanded by the load during the driving cycle. This paper has
achieved similar results but applying a different control strategy.
Ref. [28] describes a hybrid system based on a 440 kW PEM FC
and an UC as ESS for transport application. It presents a boost
chopper for the FC system and another buck/boost chopper for
the ESS, in this case, UC. The FC chopper is controlled in voltage
in order to keep dc bus rated voltage, whereas the ESS chopper is
controlled to manage the UC current. This work does not specify
the EMS used to define how the load power is distributed between
the two energy sources. As can be observed in this work, the pro-
posed hybrid system is capable of providing the power demanded
by the load during the driving cycle, keeping dc bus rated voltage.
This type of configurations formed by two energy sources and two
converters allow an active control over them. The configuration
adopted in our work only allows direct control of FC power flow
via the FC converter, so that only the FC acts as active-control
power source. On the contrary, the battery acts as a passive-control
power source, since its power flow is controlled indirectly.
Another possible configuration is presented in [12]. It is
equipped with a 65 kW PEM FC, lead–acid battery and UC. In this
2191
case, the battery is directly connected to dc bus, whereas the UC
is connected via a bidirectional dc/dc converter. An energy man-
agement strategy based on fuzzy logic defines the FC and UC power
according to the power required by the bus, the battery SOC and
UC SOC, whereas the battery power is the remaining power. There-
fore, the FC and UC acts as active-control power sources, and the
battery as passive-control power source.
Ref. [7] compares three configurations for a hybrid vehicle:
FC–battery, FC–UC and FC–battery–UC. The hybrid systems based
on FC–battery and FC–UC present the battery or UC directly con-
nected to the dc bus, whereas in case of FC–battery–UC, the battery
is connected to the dc bus through a bidirectional converter and
the UC directly connected to the dc bus. Results show that the
FC–battery configuration is the best option to optimize the power-
train cost and the total mass of the vehicle, whereas the FC–
battery–UC configuration can extend the battery lifetime due to
less battery stress.
The results of our work demonstrate the capability of the pro-
posed configuration and control strategy applied to the hybrid
tramway in order to provide the power demanded by the tramway
during the driving cycle, keeping the battery SOC in optimal levels.
6. Conclusions
In this paper, it was considered a hybrid electric system for a
tramway, powered by a PEM fuel cell as primary source and a
Ni–MH as secondary source. The power conditioning of the hybrid
system is composed only by a unique power converter, connected
to the output of the FC, whereas the battery is connected directly to
dc bus. A suitable design of the control strategy based on state ma-
chine control and a cascade control structure allows the correct
evolution of the system just commanding the FC converter to draw
a specific performance.
The hybrid power system and its control were evaluated over a
real driving cycle of Metro Centro tramway, serving the center of
Seville. Simulation results allow verifying suitable sizing of the
components and the control strategy of the energy management
system. This may be the first step to substitute overhead lines in
the historic center of Seville by an autonomous FC–battery hybrid
supply with the advantages of reduction of CO2 emissions.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by Hynergreen Technologies
S.A. and by the Cenit Program from the Centre for the Development
of Industrial Technology, Spanish Ministry of Science and Technol-
ogy, under the Ecotrans research project. A National Industries
Consortium, leaded by CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarr-
iles), and to which belongs Hynergreen Technologies, is working in
this project for the development of ecological technologies for ur-
ban transport.
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