Energy Management of a Fuel Cell Train through an Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy

This paper analyzes an energy management technique known as Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) applied to a fuel cell electric train powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and a battery energy storage system. The working principle of the ECMS is to minimize a cost function which, taking both hydrogen consumption and battery energy into account, represents an equivalent fuel consumption index. This is done by converting the energy absorbed and/or delivered by the battery into a virtual fuel consumption which is then added to the real hydrogen consumed by the fuel cell. Such conversion requires appropriate formulation and depends on a number of parameters which are detailed in the paper. In order to assess the impact of the ECMS parameters on the control performance, the ECMS algorithm is applied to a MATLAB/Simulink model of the train and several simulations of a typical drive cycle are performed. Particular attention is given to the equivalence factor, which has an essential role in converting the battery energy into a virtual hydrogen mass. Simulation results provide insight into fuel cell hydrogen usage, battery energy usage and train autonomy when varying the equivalence factor within feasible ranges.