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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 10, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2014

Predictive Control for the Energy Management of a

Fuel-CellBatterySupercapacitor Tramway
Juan P. Torreglosa, Pablo Garca, Luis M. Fernndez, Member, IEEE, and Francisco Jurado, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper evaluates a hybrid powertrain based on

fuel cell (FC), battery, and supercapacitor (SC) for the Urbos
3 tramway, which currently operates powered by SC in the city
of Zaragoza, Spain. Due to the dynamic limitations of the main
energy source, a proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) FC, other
energy secondary sources (ESSs), battery and SC, are needed
to supply the vehicle power demand. Moreover, these energy
sources allow the energy recovery during regenerative braking.
The different sources are connected to a dc bus through dcdc
converters which adapt their variable voltages to the bus voltage
and allow the control of energy flow between the sources and the
load. The components of the hybrid tramway have been modeled
in MATLAB/Simulink and are based on commercially available
devices. The energy management system used in this work to
achieve a proper operation of the energy sources of the hybrid
powertrain is based on predictive control. Simulations for the
real cycle of the tramway show the suitability of the proposed
powertrain and control strategy.
Index TermsBatteries, energy management, fuel cells (FCs),
predictive control, supercapacitors (SCs), transportation.

I. INTRODUCTION

YDROGEN is a clean energy vector. It can be produced

from several sources and is an interesting complement for
renewable energy sources, which require a clean and efficient
storage system. Electric, mechanic and heat energies can be obtained from it with high efficiency rates and zero emissions.
Hydrogen favors the energy supply safety and allows new economic opportunities in the world. These aspects, together with
the necessity of CO emissions reduction and the increment of
the energy consumption in the transportation sector, propose hydrogen as an interesting alternative fuel.
Currently, freight and public transport [1], [2] are the most
suitable transportation sectors to introduce fuel cell (FC) vehicles due to several advantages: operation at low load, in which
Manuscript received June 14, 2012; revised October 24, 2012 and January
05, 2013; accepted January 24, 2013. Date of publication February 05, 2013;
date of current version December 12, 2014. This work was supported in part
by Hynergreen Technologies S.A. and the CENIT Program from the Center for
the Development of Industrial Technology (an agency of the Spanish Ministry
of Science and Technology), under the ecoTRANS research project. Paper no.
TII-12-0411.
J. P. Torreglosa and F. Jurado are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Superior Polytechnic School of Linares, University of Jan, 23700
Jan, Spain (e-mail: jtorregl@ujaen.es; fjurado@ujaen.es).
P. Garca and L. M. Fernndez are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Superior Polytechnic School of Algeciras, University of Cadiz, 11202
Cadiz, Spain (e-mail: pablo.garcia@uca.es; luis.fernandez@uca.es).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TII.2013.2245140

high-efficiency results in low fuel consumption are achieved

(particularly in congested or slower moving traffic), size of the
vehicles allows an easy placement of the hydrogen tanks; clean
emissions, and limited infrastructure required (this kind of transport rides the same route so that only a specific number of refueling points are needed depending on the route length).
The slow dynamic of FC requires hybridization in order to
supply the vehicle energy demand [3], [4]. Hybridization in
FC-based vehicles consists of adding energy secondary sources
(ESSs), e.g., a battery or a supercapacitor (SC), to the FC, which
is the main source. Furthermore, these ESSs allow energy recovering during braking. The energy flows between sources and
vehicle loads are controlled by algorithms called energy-management strategies (EMSs).
Currently, the development of EMSs for FC hybrid vehicles
has become a topic of interest for researchers. A strategy based
on cascade control loops for an FC/battery/SC vehicle was presented in [5], whose objective was to maintain the dc bus voltage
at a desired level and keep the battery state of charge (SOC)
around its reference value. In [6], a combination between cascade control loops and lookup tables (LUTs), which generated
the FC reference power depending on the battery SOC, was used
for an FC/battery vehicle. In [7] and [8], the reference powers
of the energy sources were generated by using a strategy based
on state machine control. Fuzzy logic can be considered an evolution of state machine control, in which the discrete intervals
are substituted by a combination of fuzzy membership functions
and rules. This control strategy has been used in several works,
like in [9], with successful results. Moreover, the energy management in FC vehicles has also been performed by using intelligent control based on artificial neural networks [10].
In this work, a new EMS based on predictive control is
proposed for a tramway fueled by an FCbatterySC hybrid
system. This EMS is tested by simulation when applied to the
model of a real tramway called Urbos 3, which at the present
time serves the center of Zaragoza, Spain. Currently, this
tramway uses the rapid exchange accumulator (RCA) system
based on SCs, which allows traveling, without catenaries, from
one stop to the next. These SCs are charged during decelerations
by regenerative brakings and, when the tramway is completely
stopped, by a pantograph installed in an air power line in each
stop. This system supplies the necessary energy to complete
the SCs SOC in approximately 30 s. To eliminate the use of
air power lines in the historic urban center, and thus, to avoid
the visual impact which is caused by these lines, an alternative
traction system is proposed in this work. The new configuration
for the Urbos 3 based on FC, battery, and SC together with
the new energy management strategy will allow the tramway

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TORREGLOSA et al.: PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR THE ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF A FUEL-CELLBATTERYSUPERCAPACITOR TRAMWAY

Fig. 1. Driving cycle of the tramway. (a) Speed. (b) Traction power.

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supplying them energy from the grid, since only hydrogen refueling is allowed. Moreover, to avoid startup problems, the FC
works with an always on strategy.
The maximum load power to be generated or absorbed is similar (around 450 kW). Since the FC cannot absorb energy, the
ESSs (battery and SC) must be able to absorb this power plus
the minimum FC power (due to the fact that it is always on),
thus increasing their size. For this reason, the proposed vehicle
is an electric vehicle with an FC as the main energy source. In
addition, the aim of the SC is to face the sudden peaks which the
battery cannot generate/absorb due to its dynamic limitations.
According to these premises and after considering simulated
scenarios and commercially available components, the hybrid
system proposed in this work is composed of: 1) a 150-kW Ballards Heavy-Duty PEM FC Module [11]; 2) 340 90-Ah, 4.25-V
Thunderskys lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries [12] connected in
series; and 3) five 12.5-F, 125-V Maxwells BMOD0063-P125
UC modules [13].
III. FCBATTERYSC HYBRID SYSTEM

to work in an autonomous way, without having to be connected

to the grid during the stops, using the infrastructure associated
with the catenary.
The mathematical and electrical models of the hybrid vehicular system are developed in detail and simulated by using
MATLAB, Simulink, and SimPowerSystems.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II presents the
configuration and driving cycle of the Urbos 3 tramway.
In Section III, the configuration and modeling of the main
components of the FCbatterySC-powered tramway are
described. Predictive control for the energy management of
the hybrid tramway is developed in Section IV. Simulation
results are shown in Section V. Finally, Section VI presents the
conclusions.
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE TRAMWAY
Urbos 3 is a tramway, whose first line projected connects
Valdespartera and Parque Goya, operating in downtown
Zaragoza. It consists of 25 stops (23 with side platforms and
two with central ones), separated by approximately 500 m. This
line is 12.8 km long. Currently, two Urbos 3 simulate the commercial service between the 21st and 25th stops.
The actual tramway presents a capacity of 275 passengers and
reaches a maximum speed of 70 km/h. The traction system of
the tramway consists of five articulated bodies and three bogies,
only two of them being motor bogies.
Urbos 3 is developed by the Spanish manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). It has an RCA system,
which accumulates sufficient energy in the SCs to travel from
one stop to the next. These SCs are charged by the regenerative
braking energy and the connection to the power supply in the
stops. Fig. 1 shows the driving cycle followed by the tramway
during the bidirectional route, which is considered in the design
of the hybrid system.
For a correct hybrid system sizing, several premises must be
considered. The FC size must be higher than the average power
requirements and keep the SOCs of the battery and SC without

The new topology of the hybrid tramway powered by an FC,

battery, and SC is shown in Fig. 2. Each one of these energy
sources presents a dcdc converter, which connects it to the
traction standard dc bus. Furthermore, the hybrid system is
composed of an auxiliary services module, four traction motor
drives, a braking resistor, and an EMS.
The FC is the primary energy source of the tramway. It is
connected to a boost-type unidirectional dcdc converter, which
raises the low dc voltage delivered by the FC to the traction
standard dc bus.
In addition, a rechargeable Li-ion battery and an SC are used
as ESSs. The battery generates extra power during accelerations
and recovers energy during the brakings. Because of its high
dynamic response [14], the SC generates/consumes the peak
power that neither the FC can generate nor the battery can generate/store, and allows the dc bus voltage control.
The SC is connected to a boost-type bidirectional dcdc converter which raises the low dc voltage delivered by the SC to
the traction standard dc bus and allows an energy flow in both
directions, from the SC to the dc bus, and vice versa.
The battery is connected to a buck-type bidirectional dcdc
converter which reduces the high dc voltage delivered by the
battery to the traction standard dc bus and allows an energy flow
in both directions, from the battery to the dc bus and vice versa.
A. Fuel Cell Model
Due to factors such as the high-power density, low operating
temperature, efficiency, and relative ability to rapidly adjust to
changes in power demand, a PEM FC can be considered as a
suitable option for public transport applications [15]. In fact,
a 150-kW Ballards Heavy-Duty PEM FC Module [11] has
been selected in this work, which presents a rated power of
150 kW/621 V.
The behavior of this FC is represented by a reduced model,
which is derived from the complete model presented in [16]. The
right performance of this reduced model to approximate the FC
response, when integrated in an FC-powered vehicle, has been
demonstrated by the authors in [17]. Moreover, this reduced

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, VOL. 10, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2014

Fig. 2. Configuration of the tramway model.

model has also been used in [7][19] to evaluate other control

strategies of FC vehicles, since it achieves a suitable equilibrium
between approximation of the FC response and computational
time. In this reduced model (Fig. 3), the FC output voltage
is calculated as the product of the number of cells
and cell
voltage
. The cell voltage generated by the PEM FC
is obtained from the difference between the Nernsts instantaneous voltage
and the irreversible voltage
, which
is the sum of the activation voltage drop
, ohmic voltage
drop
, and concentration voltage drop
, where all of
the voltage drops depend on the current density [17]
(1)
(2)
(3)
is assumed to be conIn (3), the water partial pressure
stant, and the hydrogen partial pressure in the anode
and
oxygen partial pressure in the cathode
are calculated from
the mass conservation law and ideal gas law as follows:
(4)
(5)
where
and
are the hydrogen input flow to the anode
and the oxygen input flow to the cathode;
and
are the
hydrogen and oxygen output flow; and
and
are the
hydrogen and the oxygen flow that react in the anode and in the
cathode, which are calculated from Faradays law.
Otherwise, a hydrogen valve located upstream of the anode
controls the input hydrogen flow to make equal the anode and
cathode pressures [16], [20] by using a proportional controller,
as shown in Fig. 3. The anode pressure is calculated as the sum

of the hydrogen partial pressure and water partial pressure. The

cathode pressure is obtained as the sum of the oxygen partial
pressure, nitrogen partial pressure (considered proportional to
the oxygen partial pressure) and water partial pressure.
Other FC components are the compressor, humidifier, and air
cooler. The compressor, whose dynamic response is modeled by
a first-order system, controls the incoming oxygen in order to
keep constant the oxygen excess ratio,
[16]. Furthermore,
the humidifier and air cooler are regarded as ideal so that the
FC operates at an optimum temperature (80 C) and a constant
relative humidity [16]. More details about the FC model can be
found in [17].
Fig. 4 presents the polarization curve obtained from the model
used in this work and the real curve of the commercial Ballard
FC considered. In this figure, the similarity can be observed between the curves. Furthermore, it shows the FC output net and
total powers, and the FC system efficiency.
B. Battery Model
Battery utility as an energy storage device has been proved
in several works and applications [8]. Li-ion batteries are an attractive proposition for use in high-performance electric vehicles [21], [22]. In comparison with other rechargeable batteries,
Li-ion provides very high specific energy and a large number
of chargedischarge cycles. The cost is also reasonable. Thus, a
Li-ion battery, designed especially for high power and transport
applications (Thunderskys TSLFP90AHA 4.25 V, 90 Ah) [12],
has been considered for the hybrid tramway.
The behavior of this battery is represented by the model
presented in [23], which is available in the SimPowerSystems
toolbox of Simulink [24]. In this model, the battery is represented by its circuit equivalent, which is composed of a variable
voltage source in series with a resistor.
Fig. 5 shows the simulation results superimposed on the
datasheet curves [12]. It shows the battery discharge curves for
discharge rates of 1, 0.5, and 0.3 CA. The solid lines represent

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279

Fig. 3. Fuel cell model.

Fig. 5. Nominal current discharge curves of the commercial battery and the
proposed battery model.

Fig. 4. (a) Polarization curves of the Ballard FC and proposed FC model.

(b) FC output net and total powers. (c) FC system efficiency.

real data and the model occurs close to the total discharge. The
control strategy has been designed to avoid working in this
zone, so that the model is considered valid for representing the
battery response in the hybrid system.
C. Supercapacitor Model

the real data and the dotted line the simulation results. It is
observed that the simulated curves match well with the real
curves during almost 90% of the discharge, regardless of the
discharge current amplitude. The major difference between the

An SC bank has been selected to deal with the frequent charge

and discharge pulses, which compose the power requirements of
hybrid vehicles [25]. The characteristics of the charge/discharge
pulses are high current levels (up to 600 A) and duration from
tens of milliseconds to tens of seconds.

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E. Braking Chopper
During braking, most of the available energy is stored in the
ESSs, which can be recovered when necessary. However, when
the battery or SC reach the charge limit, they cannot absorb more
energy, and therefore, it must be dissipated in the braking resistor. In fact, the EMS determines the resistor needed for consuming the power excess, whenever the ESSs reach their maximum charge power.
F. Tramway Loads

Fig. 6. Discharge curves of the commercial SC and the proposed SC model.

The auxiliary services and the traction power demanded by

the traction bogies are the tramway loads. In this work, a controlled dc current source connected to the standard traction dc
bus is used to represent the power consumed by each load.
IV. ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In this work, a 125-V, 63-F Maxwell BMOD0063-P125

module has been selected [13]. This module is specifically designed for heavy transport applications such as buses, electric
trains, trolleys, cranes, etc. The SC is modeled as a simple
equivalent circuit composed of an only
branch. This model
is composed of: 1) a resistor , which models the SC ohmic
loss, usually called equivalent series resistor (ESR); and 2)
a capacitor , which simulates the SC capacitance during
charging and discharging processes.
Fig. 6 shows the SC discharge curves for different currents of
the commercial SC and the proposed SC model. It can be observed that the model data and the real data correlate, but better
for lower demands. However, the model does not reflect the nonlinear behavior at the end of each discharge curve which is the
main disadvantage of this model. The control strategy has been
designed to avoid the SC total discharge, so that this nonlinear
zone will never be reached. Therefore, the SC model is considered valid for representing the SC response in the hybrid system.
D. DCDC Converters
The voltage of the hybrid-system energy sources varies depending on the demanded current. Thus, an electronic power
system is needed to process the sources output power (variable
voltages), providing the power demanded by the system at a
constant voltage in the dc bus [26]. Specifically, the power electronic system is composed of a PWM-based dcdc converter for
each energy source [27], which connects the sources with the dc
bus, from which the loads of the electric vehicle are supplied.
Fig. 2 shows the used converters.
Both FC and SC present a lower terminal voltage than the dc
voltage necessary to feed the traction inverter. FC uses a boosttype unidirectional converter for connecting it to the dc bus. SC
uses a bidirectional power converter with boost operation when
discharging and buck operation when charging. With regard to
the battery, its voltage level is higher than the dc bus voltage, so
that it uses a bidirectional power converter that works in reverse
to the SC converter.
In this work, the converters are modeled by the average-value
equivalent model, in which the power-electronics switches are
represented by current and voltage sources. This converter
model allows reproduction of the average voltage dynamics
with larger sample times.

The implemented EMS is based on a predictive controller,

which generates the FC and battery reference currents to provide
the power demanded by the tramway, meeting the battery and
SC SOC constrains (i.e., keeping their SOC between a specific
range) and ordering the operation of the braking resistor, when
necessary, during regenerative braking.
A. Predictive Control-Based Strategy
Predictive control has been recently applied to hybrid vehicles [28][30]. In [28], this control strategy was used in a vehicle powered by two parallel FCs connected to a dc bus and
a SC connected to the dc bus through a dcdc converter. Different pairs of vehicle models and predictive controllers were
designed for different linearization points. An algorithm was
applied to choose a pair of vehicle-controller depending on the
linearization point, which fit better with the input data. In [29],
a predictive control strategy was applied to a FC-battery vehicle, which had two dcdc converters (one for each energy
source). The proposed predictive controller generated the FC
and battery reference powers from the demanded power and
the current battery SOC subject to some constraints. Finally,
in [30], a predictive controller was combined with a tracking
controller to manage the energy flow between the FC, battery
and electric motor acting on the FC and battery controllers. In
this paper, a predictive control based strategy is adapted to an
FCbatterySC system with three dcdc converters. This type
of system is more expensive than an FCbattery system but has
higher fuel economy and can extend the battery lifetime due to
lower battery stress [14].
A linear time-invariant model of the vehicle under study is
required as the first step for designing the predictive controller.
This model has two inputs, the FC reference current
and the battery reference current
, which are generated by the predictive controller. The model outputs are the load
power generated
, the battery SOC
and the SC
SOC
. This linear model is obtained by using the Control Design Toolbox of MATLAB.
After defining the model inputs and outputs, the controller is
designed. The main objective of the predictive controller is to
hold the outputs at the reference values (or setpoints) by adjusting the manipulated variables (or actuators) . The predictive controller generates the manipulated variables predicting

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TABLE I
SUMMARY OF THE CONTROLLER PARAMETERS

Fig. 7. Controller state at the th sampling instant. (a) Measured and estimated
outputs. (b) Past and previous moves.

the future behavior of the system using the vehicle model mentioned above and the data collected previously during its operation. The methodology of all of the controllers belonging to the
model predictive control (MPC) family is mentioned below by
using a hypothetical single-input single-output (SISO) model,
which makes the explanation easier.
Fig. 7 shows the SISO MPC system state, where it is assumed that this system has been operating for many sampling
instants. Integer represents the current instant. The latest measured output and previous measurements
are
known and are the filled circles shown in Fig. 7(a). If there is
a measured disturbance, the current and past values would be
known.
Fig. 7(b) shows the previous moves of the controller,
, as filled circles. As is usually the case, a
zeroth-order hold receives each move from the controller and
holds it until the next sampling instant, causing the step-wise
variations shown in this figure. To calculate the next move, the
controller operates in two phases, given here.
1) Estimation. In order to make an intelligent move, the controller needs to know the current state. This includes the
true value of the controlled variable , and any internal
variables that influence the future trend,
.
To accomplish this, the controller uses all past and current
measurements and the model.
2) Optimization. Values of setpoints, measured disturbances,
and constraints are specified over a finite horizon of fu-

ture sampling instants

, where
(a finite integer 1) is the prediction horizon. The controller computes
moves
, where
is the control horizon. In the hypothetical example shown in the figure, the values of and
are the following ones:
and
. The moves are
the solution of a constrained optimization problem.
In the example, the optimal moves are the four open circles in
Fig. 7(b). The controller predicts that the resulting output values
will be the nine open circles in Fig. 7(a). Notice that both are
within their constraints,
and
. When it has finished calculating, the controller
sends the move
to the vehicle. The vehicle operates with
this constant input until the next sampling instant,
time units
later. The controller then obtains new measurements and totally
revises its plan. This cycle repeats indefinitely.
After describing the predictive controller operation, the
system constraints are formulated. These constrains affect the
system outputs, which must be kept around their setpoints, and
the system inputs generated by the predictive controller, which
must meet the dynamic limitations of the respective energy
sources. The input and output constraints are summarized in
Table I. The battery SOC must be kept between 50%80% of
capacity to achieve high charge efficiency [31]. In the case
of the SC, the allowed SOC range selected for this work is
between 60%95%.
Similar to other works [17][19], an always on strategy is
applied to the FC in order to avoid startup problems. Thus, the
FC power is limited in level, between a minimum FC power
and its maximum delivered power
. Furthermore, FC has a time-delayed response due to the lag between
the response of the react supply system and the load applied to
the FC [32]. It can be avoided by limiting in slope the FC reference current defined by the predictive controller. In fact, it has
been considered that the FC can change the generated power
from 10% to 90% of the rate of power in 2 s. Apart from
that, the battery reference power is limited in level, depending
on the maximum discharge and charge powers. The predictive
controller parameters are shown in Table I.
The controller ensures that the three requirements are met:
1) fulfill the vehicles power demand; 2) keep the battery and
SC SOC around their reference values; and 3) define an appropriate FC reference power generation according to its dynamic
limitations.

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Fig. 8. (a) EMS overall scheme. (b) Duty cycle generation of the dcdc converters.

Fig. 8(a) shows the overall scheme of the proposed control

strategy. Once the predictive controller has generated the inputs
to the vehicle model described in Section III, two PI controllers
[Fig. 8(b)] are the responsible for controlling the FC and battery
reference currents by generating the adequate duty cycles for
the FC and battery power converters. The model outputs are the
actual SC and battery SOCs and the total power generated by the
hybrid system, which are controlled by the predictive controller.
B. Control of the DCDC Converters and Braking Resistor
The predictive controller takes into account the constraints
commented above so that, unlike previous works, it is unnecessary to apply them to the controllers that generate the duty cycle
of the converters, shown in Fig. 8(b).
The FC reference current is directly compared with the measured FC current by using a PI controller to generate the duty
cycle of the FC unidirectional converter. Similarly, the battery
reference and measured currents are compared by using another
PI controller to generate the duty cycle of the corresponding
converter. Finally, the SC enables the dc bus voltage control,
generating the power that the FC and/or the battery are not able
to generate due to their dynamics limitations. Thus, this voltage
is maintained at 750 V by using a PI controller, which generates the SC reference current. This current is limited in level,
depending on the physical limitations of SC. Finally, a PI controller generates the duty cycle of the SC bidirectional converter
from the error between the resulting current and actual current.
In the proposed strategy, the braking resistor absorbs the excess of energy when the battery and SC reach their maximum
charge power during regenerative braking.
V. SIMULATIONS
The purposed configuration and EMS based on MPC are evaluated by simulation in Simulink for the real drive cycle of Urbos
3 tramway. Both the speed and traction power demanded by the

tramway are shown in Fig. 1. The tramway route presents four

trips and four stops. During the first and last trips, the tramway
reaches a maximum speed of 50 km/h. Regarding the power
demanded, it reaches a maximum value of 420 kW for acceleration and 420 kW for braking, which have to be absorbed
by the battery and/or the SC. Moreover, the auxiliary services
power (57.47 kW) must be added to that demanded power. Thus,
the hybrid system has to generate approximately a maximum
power of 450 kW and the auxiliary services power even when
the tramway is stopped.
Fig. 9 shows the simulation results for a whole simulation of
eight driving cycles, and Figs. 10 and 11 represent the results of
the last driving cycle. This last cycle has been selected to show
the performance of the EMS while stable.
The voltage of the energy sources is shown in Fig. 9(a). The
correct behavior of the whole EMS can be seen in this figure,
since the dc bus voltage is maintained at a constant value (750
V). Moreover, Fig. 9(b) shows that the battery and SC SOCs
are maintained around their reference values (65% and 75%),
which is one of the objectives of the presented strategy.
The power of the different energy sources during the last
drive cycle is shown in Figs. 10 and 11. It can be observed
that the battery supports the FC during starts or accelerations
of the tramway, and absorbs most of the power generated by the
tramway during brakings or decelerations. On the other hand,
the SC supports the generation and absorption of the power that
the battery is not able to exchange due to its physical limitation.
When the behavior of the strategy becomes stable, the FC operates at around 100 kW during the most of the journey. In case
of high acceleration or braking, the FC generates its maximum
or minimum power, respectively.
It can be verified in Fig. 11(a), where the sum of the powers of
each energy sources is represented, that the implemented hybrid
system is able to provide the tramway power. Fig. 11(b) shows
the power dissipated in the braking resistor in the last drive

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Fig. 9. (a) Voltage of the energy sources for the eight driving cycles. (b) Battery
and SC SOCs for the eight driving cycles.

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Fig. 11. (a) Load power for the last driving cycle. (b) Power dissipated in the
braking resistor for the last driving cycle.

Fig. 12. Details of the hybrid system powers during the power dissipation in
the braking resistor.
TABLE II
SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM SIMULATION

Fig. 10. (a) FC power for the last driving cycle. (b) Battery power for the last
driving cycle. (c) SC power for the last driving cycle.

cycle. The highest peak of dissipated power, with a value of

345 kW, happens during the first braking in which the tramway
speed is reduced from 50 to 0 km/h and the power change is approximately of 870 kW. The reason for using the braking resistor is shown in Fig. 12. The regenerative power generated is
high and the SC is charged with the maximum power which it is
able to absorb. The FC reacts by changing the generated power

from its maximum to its minimum power according to its dynamic limitation. During this high-load power change, the battery transition from discharge to charge is not sufficiently quick
to absorb the excess power which the SC is not able to absorb,
and, for this reason, the power must be dissipated in the braking
resistor.
Table II shows a summary of the approximated results obtained from the simulation of the vehicle controlled with the
EMS proposed in this paper. The parameters included in this

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table are: FC hydrogen mass consumption

, FC system
and HV average energy efficiencies, maximum power and total
energy dissipated in the braking resistor (
and
),
and the battery and SC average SOC.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper has evaluated the use of an EMS based on MPC
when applied to a real tramway. This EMS has been tested in
a modeled hybrid propulsion system composed by a PEM FC
as the primary energy source and a Li-ion battery and a SC as
energy storage and support systems. Each energy source is connected to the dc bus through a dcdc converter. This configuration allows the tramway to operate without connecting to the
electrical grid.
The suitability of the predictive control for this hybrid vehicle
has been demonstrated from the simulation results. Based on
these results it can be seen from them that the vehicle power
demand is fulfilled, the dc bus voltage is kept constant at 750 V
and the battery and the SC SOCs are controlled and maintained
around the desired value, 65% and 75% respectively.
Finally, although the goal of the control strategy was not to
optimize the FC and HV efficiencies, good results were obtained. The efficiencies at the end of the eight driving cycles
were 62% for the FC and 53% for the HV. The substantial value
of FC efficiency is due to the FC working around its maximum
efficiency, when the strategy becomes stable. Apart from that,
the amount of energy dissipated in the braking resistor explains
the lower value of HV efficiency.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
A National Industries Consortium, led by CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles), in which Hynergreen Technologies is a member, is currently working on this project to
develop ecological technologies for urban transport.
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TORREGLOSA et al.: PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR THE ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF A FUEL-CELLBATTERYSUPERCAPACITOR TRAMWAY

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Juan P. Torreglosa was born in Sevilla, Spain, in
1985. He received the M.Sc. degree in industrial engineering and Ph.D. degree from the University of
Jan, Jan, Spain, in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
He has worked as a Researcher with different
projects since 2009. Currently, he is a member of the
Electrical Engineering Department, University of
Jan, Jan, Spain, as a recipient of a research grant.
His research activities are mainly focused on energy
management applied to hybrid systems composed
by renewable energy sources.

Pablo Garca was born in La Linea de la Concepcion (Cdiz), Spain, in 1984. He received the M.Sc.
degree in engineering and Ph.D. degree from the University of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain, in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
Since 2008, he has been a Professor with the
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain. His research interest focuses
on power systems and power management in hybrid
systems.

285

Luis M. Fernndez (M11) was born in Los Barrios, Spain. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Seville, Seville,
Spain, in 1997 and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain, in 2004.
From 1997 to 2000, he was with the Department of
Development and Research, Desarrollos Eolicos S.A.
In 2000, he joined the University of Cadiz, Cadiz,
Spain, where he is currently an Associate Professor
with the Department of Electrical Engineering. His
current research interests include renewable energy
sources and fuel cell systems.

Francisco Jurado (M00SM06) was born in

Linares, Spain. He received the M.Sc. and Dr. Ing.
degrees from the National University of Distance
Education, Madrid, Spain, in 1995 and 1999, respectively.
He is currently a Professor with the Department
of Electrical Engineering, University of Jan, Jan,
Spain. His research activities have been devoted to
several topics, e.g., power systems, modeling, and renewable energy.