Energy Management of a Fuel Cell/Battery/Super capacitor Hybrid Power Source for Tramway Applications

This paper deals with tramway energy management powered by fuel cell, battery and super capacitor (SC). The fuel cell, which is the main source, is connected to the direct current (DC) bus via a boost converter to supply energy to the battery and the load. The super capacitor is linked to the DC bus through a buck-boost converter and ensures the transient power requirements. The battery is linked to the DC bus through a buck-boost converter for supplying both the traction load and the super capacitor in addition to recovering part of the braking energy of the traction motor. We proposed a simplified energy management using conventional proportional-integral (PI) controllers. The aim of this strategy is to satisfy the dynamic of the DC bus, to provide the energy required by the tramway and to recover the braking energy of the traction motor. The proposed strategy is tested throw some simulations under Matlab-Simulink and the results are discussed.