2011 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Colloquium (IAPEC)
Parallel Configuration in Energy Management
Control for the Fuel cell-Battery-Ultracapacitor
Hybrid Vehicles
Jenn Hwa Wong¹, N.R.N.Idris1 and Makbul Anwari²,
¹Department of Energy Conversion,
Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
University Teknologi Malaysia,
81300 Skudai, Johor,
Malaysia.
Abstract- This paper proposes a parallel energy-sharing
configuration of energy management control for fuel cell hybrid
vehicles (FCHVs) application. The hybrid energy source consists
of fuel cells (FCs) and energy storage units (ESUs) made up of
battery pack and ultracapacitor (UC) module. The aim of the
control is to regulate the DC link voltage, which is connected to
the traction DC motor via the h-bridge converter. Each source is
connected to the DC bus/load using parallel active topology. A
total of six control loops are constructed in a supervisory system
in order to regulate the DC bus voltage, control of current flow
and at the same time, to monitor the state of charge (SOC) of the
energy storage devices. The effectiveness of the proposed parallel
energy-sharing control system is discussed and analyzed and
then verified by experiments.
Keywords: Fuel cell, battery, ultracapacitor, hybrid source, fuel cell hybrid
vehicle and energy management control.
I. INTRODUCTION
Application of FCs in electric vehicle is one of the
promising solutions to provide high-energy efficient, quiet
operation and less pollutant drive train. In contrast to the
battery powered electric vehicle, FCHV offers a longer
driving range for as long as the fuel supply is available on
board. However, there are few problems associated with using
FC alone to power the vehicle, such as a relatively short
lifespan, poor dynamic response, long start-up time, high cost,
and inability to capture of regenerative energy during braking
mode [1-3]. Moreover, peak power demands from FC leads to
fuel starvation phenomenon and is hazardous to its lifespan.
Therefore, hybridization of FC with ESU is necessary in order
to overcome the above mention problems. It is also shown [2]
that a proper sizing of ESU in FCHV could greatly reduce the
size and cost of the vehicle itself.
The ESU could consist of battery modules, UC modules or
a combination of both (dual ESUs). There have been several
studies carried out to investigate on the hybridization of the
FCHV. From the comparative study performed in [2,4,5],
results showed that the hybridization of FC-battery-UC
vehicle leads to a more practical solution, higher fuel
economy and increases battery lifetime. Of course, these
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2
Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Umm Al-Qura,
Makkah 21955,
Saudi Arabia.
aspects also depend on the hybridization structures, control
algorithm adopted and energy management control in the
hybrid system.
This paper focuses on the energy management and power-
flow control. From the literatures, most of the proposed
energy management strategies are of series energy-sharing
configurations [1,2,6]. In a series configuration, the power
flow of energy sources is controlled in such a way that the
energy dense sources are used to deliver the power to the
power dense source, and the power dense source is then used
to regulate the DC bus and to respond to the peak power
demand.
This paper proposes a parallel energy-sharing configuration
in controlling the power-flow from multiple energy sources to
power an electric vehicle propulsion system. The hybrid
source is composed of a FC generator, battery units and UC
modules. Through parallel configuration of power-flow, the
DC bus is regulated by all energy sources simultaneously but
with different contributions depending on the characteristics
of the sources and defined by the control laws.
Arrangement of the paper is as follows: Section II discusses
on the proposed energy management system while Section III
discusses on the proposed control strategy. The results are
presented in Section IV together with discussions. Lastly, the
conclusion is presented in Section V.
II. ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Energy management is one of the most important factors in
determining the efficiency, dynamic performance as well as
reliability of a FCHV. This is true especially with the
utilization of combined ESUs (battery and UC). In order to
efficiently utilize these sources and to avoid component
failure, the proposed algorithm in this paper is developed
based on the characteristic of the vehicle load components,
FC, UC and battery. These are discussed as follows.
- FCHV load components can be categorized into two
types: constant load and transient load. Constant load
consists of based load (e.g. on-board electric load and air
conditioning), rolling resistance, aerodynamic drag and
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 gravitational pull on an inclined road. These loads can be
assumed constant and they should be supplied by the FC.
On the other hand, transient load is associated with the
power needed during acceleration, deceleration or
braking. These loads cause power transient and should be
supplied or absorbed by the energy buffer or storage
units.
- Fuel cell (FC) shows a slow transient response and has a
relatively high internal resistance. In addition, FC system
has the disadvantage of slow start-up. However, FC is
able to supply power continuously for as long as the
reactants are available. Hence, it could function as a
power generator in the hybrid source by constantly
supplying the average or steady state power. The power
flow during this mode is as shown in Fig. 1(a).
Depending on the speed of vehicle and the state-of-
charge (SOC) of the ESUs, the FC can also be used to
charge ESUs when they have low energy content.
- Ultracapacitor (UC) has a high power density and hence
able to provide a large amount of power within a
relatively short period. Moreover, UC is a robust device,
has long lifecycle, require low maintenance and low
internal resistance. Consequently, UC can be used as the
energy buffer during the peak power demand. The
Fig. 1 Mode of power flow in the hybrid system: a) during steady state, b)
possible power flow during the transient stage is as during transient, c) during start-up
shown in Fig. 1(b) where the UC is responsible in
proving the main source of power during acceleration
and absorb most of the braking energy. Nevertheless, III. PROPOSED ENERGY CONTROL SYSTEM
UC is known to have a relatively low energy density and
fast self-discharge characteristics. Vehicle may face A parallel energy-sharing configuration is proposed to
start-up problem once the energy content in the UC is control the power flow between the DC bus, energy source
depleted due to self-discharged process. Under this (i.e. FC) and ESUs (i.e. UC and battery). The aim of the
condition, one cannot rely on the FC to power the control is to provide a regulated DC bus voltage, which is
vehicle, supply the initial acceleration power and charge connected to the converter of the motor drive system and
on the UC at the same time because of its slow start-up vehicle accessories. The regulated DC voltage is obtained by
time. Therefore, during the start-up stage, power must controlling the power flow between FC, ESU and battery
generally comes from other source of energy, i.e. battery. using the power electronic converters as depicted in Fig. 2. In
- Battery has an advantage of high specific energy but the parallel active connection, the FC and ESUs are connected
relatively low in specific power. The power response is to the DC bus via DC/DC converters. The FC is connected to
faster than FC, but slower than UC. Furthermore, battery the DC bus using a single quadrant boost converter that also
has a limited lifespan (300-2000 cycles) depending on at the same time blocks the power flow back to the FC. On
several factors such as: types of the battery, depth of the other hand, the battery and UC are connected to the DC
discharge cycles, discharge rate, cell operating bus via half-bridge converters that allow bi-directional energy
temperature, charging regime, number of overcharge and flow.
others. Hence, to optimize the lifespan of battery, it is The structure of the proposed parallel energy-sharing
necessary that battery current slope be limited in order to management control is as shown in Fig. 3. It contains a total
reduce the peak transient stress, hence, the peak power of six control loops (all using PI-controllers): a DC bus
response generally comes from the UC. As discussed voltage control loop, three inner current control loops, an UC
early, depending on the SOC of the UC, the main power voltage control loop and a battery charging control loop. The
during start-up might come mostly from the battery as DC bus voltage control loop is used to regulate the DC bus
depicted in Fig. 1(c). voltage, which generates a current reference to the three inner
current control loops. The three inner current loops are used
to control the currents of the FC, battery and UC respectively.
In order to limit the slope of the reference current for the
battery and FC within their safe values, low pass filters with
time constants τ1 and τ2 are used for the two current
references respectively. The current reference of the UC is

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obtained by subtracting the reference current generated by the
DC voltage loop with the output current from the battery and
FC; this is to ensure that only the UC current reference
contains the demanding peak transient elements of the load
current reference. To enable the battery to operate in a narrow
charge-discharge cycle, the battery current reference is
subtracted with the FC output current. By doing so, the peak
power demand from the FC is avoided and at the same time
only the FC will supply the continuous steady state power.
In the proposed control strategy, the UC is used mainly for
two reasons: to provide the peak power requirement during
acceleration and to absorb the vehicle kinetic energy during
regenerative braking. It is therefore important to ensure that
the UC is always ready to provide the peak power as well as
to absorb the braking power. For this reason, the SOC of the
UC is made dependent on the vehicle speed such that the
available space of energy storage in the UC is proportional to
the vehicle kinetic energy. For instance, if the vehicle is
moving fast (i.e. large kinetic energy), more room is made
available in the UC for regenerative braking and vice versa.
Thus the UC voltage is given by (1).
In (1), VUC is the terminal voltage of the UC, VUC,max is the
allowable maximum voltage of the UC, M is the mass of the
vehicle, v is the speed of vehicle and CUC is the capacitance of
the UC. To ensure that the UC always has adequate energy
from the battery and FC for vehicle accelerations, UC
charging command (IUC-C) is added to the battery and FC
current references. Conversely, UC need to be discharged to
Fig. 2
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provide sufficient volume for the vehicle kinetic energy
during regenerative braking. This can be realized by summing
up the UC discharge command (IUC-D) to the UC current
control loop. To avoid battery being charged by UC, the UC
discharge command is limited to the load current demand.
In the proposed energy-sharing control system, battery is
only charged by the FC and is controlled through the battery
charging control loop. A simple charging method is
implemented to charge on the battery, which is based on
constant current-constant voltage (CCCV) method. The initial
SOC of the battery (lead-acid) can be obtained based on its
open-circuit terminal voltage [7]. The battery charging
command (ISOC Batt) is generated from the battery charging
control loop and added to the FC current reference.
Based on the discussion above, the reference signals
for each control loop are summarized as below:
V bus ref = constant (2)
IUC ref = Iload – ( IFC feedback + IBatt feedback )+IUC-D (3)
IBatt ref = Iload + IUC-C – IFC feedback (4)
IFC ref = Iload + IBatt-C + IUC-C (5)
(1) where V bus ref is the dc bus voltage, IUC ref , IBatt ref and IFC ref
are the current loop reference signals for the UC, battery and
FC respectively. Iload is the load current demand, IUC-C and IUC-
D is the UC charge and discharge signal that are generated
from the UC voltage control loop. IFC feedback and IBatt feedback are
the current feedback signals for the FC and battery
respectively and IBatt-C is the battery charging command.
Proposed parallel energy sharing system
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 Fig. 3 Proposed parallel energy sharing control for the FC-battery-UC hybrid system
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Simulations as well as experiments are carried out to verify
the viability of the proposed method. The simulations are
carried out using of MATLAB/Simulink simulation package.
For the experimental set-up, the battery pack is made up of 4
series connected 12V , 45AH calcium-calcium battery. The
UC used in the experiment is a 165F, 48V BMOD0165 EO48
BO1 BOOSTCAP from Maxwell. Due to unavailability of the
FC at the moment, its behavior is emulated using a HP6675A
power supply with an output voltage at 48V. The control
algorithm is implemented using dSPACE DS1104 controller
board with an overall sampling period of 100µs. The DC bus
voltage is regulated at 80V where a shunt DC motor rated at
0.25hp 120V 3000r.p.m. is connected to it via a H-bridge
converter to represent the vehicle propulsion system. Initially,
the battery is fully charged and the SOC of UC is set at 87.5%
(VUC =42 V). An ideal start-stop drive cycle is applied to the
proposed hybrid system. Some key waveforms are recorded
during the motor acceleration, deceleration and steady state
speed as shown in Fig. 4. The DC motor accelerates at t=10s
from stand still to steady state speed of 1300 rpm and then
decelerates at t=310s to halt.
As the DC motor started to accelerate, the following
conditions are observed:
• During motor acceleration, the UC module supplies
most of the peak power demand followed by the
battery and FC within a limited current slope.
• The UC power provides the fastest dynamics; the
battery power is second followed by the FC.
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• Synchronously, the UC power, after a sharp
discharge during motor acceleration, decreases
slowly to a constant discharge current at around 1A.
• Based on the speed of the DC motor, the UC voltage
falls to it reference voltage to make room for
regenerative energy from the DC motor.
• The steady-state load current is approximately 2A,
which is totally supplied by the FC alone. The
battery is back to idle state after the transient
response.
When the DC motor starts to decelerate, it can be observed
that the regenerative braking energy from the DC motor
regenerates back to the dc bus. One can observe that:
• The sharp braking power is recuperated by the UC
and at the same time, the UC is also getting charged
from the FC and battery.
• The FC and battery supplies power to charge the UC.
The battery goes to idle condition and the UC is
charged up only by FC.
• When the UC module is charged up to its reference
voltage, the FC power slowly reduces to zero.
• When the UC is fully charged, the battery will
capture the excess energy.
 100
DC Bus

v olta ge (V )
50

0
1500
1300 RPM
D C m o to r s p ee d

1000
(R P M )

500

4 DC motor current
c u rren t (A )

0
FC current
-2

4
UC current
2
c u rre nt (A )

0
battery current
-2

-4
43
v oltag e (V )

42 UC voltage

41
UC voltage reference
40
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
time (s)

Fig. 4 An ideal start-stop drive cycle response for the proposed hybrid system

During the steady state conditions, one can observe the

following: V. CONCLUSIONS
i. Steady state speed
• During the steady state speed, the UC is discharged This paper proposes and discusses on the design and control
accordingly to the speed of motor to make room structure of a FCHV using a parallel energy-sharing
for regenerative power. configuration. The hybrid source in this paper consists of FC
• However, if the UC voltage is lower than its generator, battery and UC units. Through the proposed energy
reference voltage, the battery followed by the FC control system, the peak power stress on the FC and battery is
will charge the UC. avoided. The UC is used to provide peak power demand and
• Once the UC reached its reference voltage, the FC to recuperate most of the braking power at the same time.
supplies all of the constant load power. At this Voltage of the UC is controlled accordingly, depending on the
time, the battery and UC are in the idle condition. vehicle’s speed in order to ensure sufficient energy for
ii. Stand still condition vehicle acceleration and also adequate space to capture the
• At the stand still (zero speed) condition, the FC and kinetic energy during braking. The proposed method does not
battery charge the UC up to its reference voltage. guarantee perfect results in all situations, but provides a
• The FC, battery and UC are in idle condition when satisfactory energy management method in control the overall
there are no load demands. FCHV system. The validity of the proposed energy control
scheme is supported by experimental results.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Higher
Education (MoHE) of the Malaysian government for
providing the funding (under FRGS) to conduct the research.
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