IEEE PEDS 2011, Singapore, 5 - 8 December 2011
Analysis of Multi-power Sources Energy
Management System for Electric Hybrid Vehicle
M A Hannan1, F A Azidin1,2, and A Mohamed1
National University of Malaysia, Malaysia1
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Malaysia2
E-mail: faridarafat@utem.edu.my; hannan@eng.ukm.my; azah@eng.ukm.my
Abstract- This paper presents a new energy management system
(EMS) for small hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), which utilizes
energy from the combination of battery, fuel cell (FC) and super
capacitors (SC). These alternative energy sources are excellent
potential solution to the ever-rising price of petrol. The major
focus of this paper is the energy management system, which
consists of a strategy to coordinate the three different sources.
This novel strategy for small HEV allowed the model to meet
various load demand condition of an electric scooter or any
three-wheeled vehicles. The model is simulated in MATLAB
SIMULINK and its performance is analyzed by using the
European test drive cycle (ECE-47). The simulation model
system includes three renewable energy sources, EMS, DC
machine, vehicle speed and feedback control system. The
comparison result shows that the model capable to perform the
proposed driving cycle.
INTRODUCTION
The escalated increase of oil prices due to resource
depletion, global warming issues and enforcement of
compulsory standard gas emissions in the cities attribute
tremendous impact in developing new transportation
technology these days [1]. Thus, an alternative solution like
the HEV with its consumption efficiency, economical value
and lower toxic gas emission is anticipated to be the
technology of the future. The term HEV refers to cars in most
cases, whereas the term small HEV is restricted to referring to
scooters or three-wheeled vehicles.
Besides generating power from renewable energy
resources, the HEV technology is particularly interesting due
to the fact that it is powered by FC, which has the potential to
replace traditional combustion engine and thus could increase
efficiency and reduce toxic emission. In order to achieve the
same power and density energy similar to the combustion
engine, FCs are combined with battery and SC to provide fast
and additional power during high demand and to overcome
start time of the FC.
In many Asian countries, scooter and three-wheeled
vehicles are an important mean of fast and inexpensive
transportation. They are widely used in the cities for short
distance traveling and as a powerful way to combat traffic
jam. These kinds of vehicles have a capacity of 2-5 kW,
powered by combustion engine (ICE). However, due to
increasing concern for a better care for the environment,
978-1-4577-0001-9/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE
small HEV nowadays is no longer powered by ICE, but is
introduced with a different concept of power system.
Correlative analysis study of three-wheeled rickshaw drive
train of hybrid configuration has successfully achieved by
Mulhall [2-3]. A plug-in electric rickshaw with solar assist
increased the average daily range of the vehicle if appropriate
control system is applied. P. Garcia has developed a modeling
and control of a FC-battery powered hybrid system of
tramway [4]. The study concentrates in EMS, which
developed a control strategy to provide tramway load demand
by optimizing the system energy.
A small HEV powered by FC electrical system is
composed of DC/DC converter, motor controller, motor drive
system and energy management system (EMS). The concept
of energy system may be designed differently according to
load and power demand, vehicle capacity and other purposes.
Research paper from P. Garcia [4]: Electrical HEV and
tramway stated that FC is normally used as primary sources
while battery and SC as auxiliary sources. In this small HEV
project, battery is used as a primary energy source while SC
as auxiliary source. Additionally FC will be used as extended
energy sources whenever high demand load is required.
Basically it means that the small HEV will use maximum
energy source from the battery and avoid the use of FC. This
concept is ideal for small HEV since the battery can be
charged at home and there is a possibility of solar harvesting
for the vehicle too. The additional accessories such as plug-in
and solar sources stored energy in the battery are not involved
directly in EMS; therefore it is unnecessary to control them.
Consequently it is the battery that plays the important role as
primary sources for this system and thus makes the battery
Fig. 1. Multi-power sources in close loop motor drive system for small
HEV
452
storage capacity or state of charge (SOC) the critical point of
the system.
In this paper, the development of EMS for small HEV will
be disclosed. The block diagram of the closed loop drive
system is shown in Fig. 1 Multi-power sources are connected
to the EMS before being linked to the motor drive. The power
sources are battery, FC and SC. They are all controlled by
control switches that depend on control algorithm strategy.
The system strategy depends on the pedal acceleration offset
for instant energy, battery capacity and a constant high speed
energy requirement.
In the next section, the design concept and the simulation
method in MATLAB SIMULINK is briefly explained. After
that, the description of EMS for the control strategy is
clarified and finally the simulation result is presented.
SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
Theoritical Model
1. Battery Model
The battery model used in this paper is taken from the
block model of the SimPowerSystems of MATLAB
Simulink. The system is set up as controlled voltage source
with established V-I characteristics curve. The no load
voltage E is calculated through decreasing constant voltage
EO with exponential voltage A and exponential capacity B.
Other parameter involved is polarization voltage, K and
battery capacity Q. As a result, the equivalent circuit can be vehicle. The mathematical modeling of SC can be associated
expressed as [5-7]
(1) the initial voltage of the capacitor, Vi and the time constant
The battery V-I curve is not constant due to the existence
of internal resistance that increases during discharge [8]. The
no load voltage of the battery will be decreased exponentially
to the load current until it reaches the nominal area.
The battery SOC is measured in percentage. The battery
is empty when SOC is 0% and it is fully charged at SOC
equals 100%. The load current is inversely linear to the SOC
value. The discharge rate can be calculated using below
equation [5, 7-8].
.
100 1 ) (2)
2. FC Model
The FC model is designed by simplifying the block
model from SimPowerSystems of MATLAB. The proton
exchange membrane (PEM) FC model type uses hydrogen
and air to feed up membranes inside. The combination of
hydrogen and air initiated a chemical reaction. The byproduct
of this reaction is water and energy that generate voltage [4,
9-13]. The generated voltage E of the fuel cell is determined
by deduction of open circuit voltage EOC by Tafel slope,
which are described by number of fuel cell N, and parameter
A, which is chemical dynamic process. The mathematical
equation of potential voltage produced by fuel cell is defined
as [7, 9, 11].
(3)
The FC system is connected to the power diode to avoid
reverse current flow to the system in regenerative situation.
Subsequently, the FC system is linked to the DC/DC
converter, which is responsible to maintain constant load
voltage. The duty ratio, D for the switching period is
controlled by PI (proportional integral) controller [7, 10, 14].
The expression of duty ratio in terms of supply voltage, VS
and load voltage, VL is as follows [15-17]:
(4)
The relationship of duty ratio and PI controller can be
demonstrated in equation (5) [7, 18] where k1 and k2 are
constant value and the reference voltage Vref.
(5)
3. SC Model
The SC energy storage system is designed to aid battery
or FC in case high of high demand power requested by the
to the basic discharging circuit of capacitor voltage in terms
of RC circuit. The effective discharging voltage depends on
RC which can be described as [17, 19-20]
(6)
The amount of energy delivered by SC, E is directly
proportional to capacitance, C and voltage change throughout
discharge where Vf is the final discharge. The equation is
defined as [12, 18, 21]
(7)
4. EMS and Power Control System
All energy sources will be linked to the multi-switches.
The activation of the switches depend on all three input
variables from pedal acceleration (Po), battery SOC (Bc) and
high power demand load (Pd). The output current of the
switches are the current supply that comes from the
combination of the battery current Ibatt, FC current IFC and SC
current ISC as set by the control strategy rules. Fundamentally,
the total current supply can be defined as [19]
(8)
453
 Electrical power delivered by DC machine can be
calculated through armature current and voltage supply
which is defined as follows [7, 19]

(13)

Fig. 2. EMS and power control system block diagram
The block diagram from Fig.2 demonstrates how the
system works to control switches and current for the vehicle
power load.
The block diagram of current controlled source consists
of PI control system that determines the reference current, Iref
from the measuring actual speed and reference speed of the
vehicle. Then the reference current will be compared to
armature current to get the appropriate duty cycle for the DC
chopper [7].
(9)
6. Vehicle System
This vehicle model is built based on the small HEV,
which could be in form of a middleweight Auto-rickshaw or
a battery-scooter. The characteristic of the vehicle dynamic
model is shown in Table I. Some parameters shown are
coefficients that exist during vehicles physical movement.
Several forces that occurred during the movement of the
vehicle declined the motor torque and the motor speed should
be evaluated. In addition, the motor speed is not directly
linked to the vehicle but through gear ratio and the radius of
the vehicle drive wheel.
The vehicle linear velocity can be derived from the
rotational motor speed and gear ratio [22]
.. (14)

|| (10) The total forces, Ftotal that occurred during vehicle

The controlled current from the DC chopper comes from
supply current that has been measured to meet the precise
value of current needed to power up the vehicle. The
controlled current is the load current derived from the
equation [7]
acceleration are acceleration force, air friction force, wheel
friction force, and slope friction force. The vehicle power Pveh
required to move the vehicle is the sum of total forces Ftotal
multiply with velocity, v [22-30].
(15)

. (11) (16)

5. DC Machine 7. Feedback and Control System

A separated DC machine block in the MATLAB
SIMULINK is also implemented in this vehicle system. The
same voltage supply is given at the field and the armature
terminals. The net torque applied on the rotor determines the
motor speed and its relationship to the mechanical part is
shown in the following equation [7, 10, 19]:
(12) mathematical block is used to detect battery SOC and send
TABLE I
VEHICLE MODEL PARAMETER
The feedback control system has the task to regulate the
vehicle system to follow the control strategy in EMS. Two
feedback measurements, which are battery SOC and vehicle
speed, will be used to calculate high demand load of the
system. Since the main power source is the battery, its
capacity will be used until it reaches 50% of the SOC. Within
the MATLAB SIMULINK application, the comparison
the signal to activate the FC. Pedal acceleration signal is
evaluated by comparing the offset value and then the SC will
be triggered whenever necessary.

Simulation Model
Vehicle model parameter Values
The development of the simulation vehicle model starts
Tyre radius, r 0.26m
Gear ratio, G 2.1 by dimensioning the vehicle parameter, calculating the
Vehicle mass + passengers 240kg required DC machine and choosing the specification of the
Frontal Area, A 1.2m2 battery, FC and SC. The proposed simulation design can be
Drag co-efficient, cd 0.75 realized through MATLAB SIMULINK. The overall small
Rolling co-efficient, ur 0.009
Air-density, d 1.25kg/m3 HEV simulation structure is proposed in Fig. 3.
Gravity Acceleration, g 9.81ms-2

454
 Fig. 3. Vehicle system in MATLAB Simulink
The structure of simulation model consists of three
energy sources, EMS and power control, DC machine/motor,
vehicle system and feedback and control system. The three
energy sources will be integrated in the EMS and power
control block. There, all energy sources are controlled by
switches, which receive signal from feedback and control
system block. Then, the selected output current is controlled
by PI regulator to set up speed according to the drive cycle
before it flows into the armature motor. The rated DC voltage
with controlled current is connected to the DC machine and
converts the electrical energy into rotating speed. From the
rotor speed, the vehicle speed is calculated according to the
mechanical transmission and vehicle parameter.
The vehicle speed and battery SOC are the feedback
parameters from the feedback and control system. In this
block, decision to activate energy sources is based on the
feedback signal and control strategy that will be described
further in EMS section.
ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
All energy sources have different tasks in delivering
power to the load. The EMS controls this distinction
according to below described principles:
1) Battery is the main energy sources of the vehicle. When
the start button is triggered, processors will determine the
battery capacity and the pedal acceleration. Then the EMS
will decide which energy sources should be activated
according to the control algorithm strategy. Battery can also
functions as a storage device that receives charges from fuel
cell or during plug-in.
2) FC is the secondary energy sources of the vehicle. It
will start supplying energy to the load and recharging the
battery simultaneously when the battery capacity reaches
below 50%. If the battery reaches 80% of its capacity and
high power demand is not required, then the FC supply is cut
off. Any excess of the energy from the FC will be stored in
the battery. By using this new concept of energy distribution,
the use of hydrogen in the FC can be reduced significantly.
3) SC will be supporting energy sources when both battery
and FC require longer time to support high power demand
conditions. Once this is triggered, it will be recharged and
ready for the next coming request.
The operational control strategies are based on seven
operation states. The main task of the system is to maintain
power source to drive the DC motor. By following the
principles as shown in Table II, the control system should
have intelligent capabilities to recognize situation when to
trigger appropriate state. Three input conditions that are used
in this intelligent control algorithm are load demand through
pedal offset (PO), power duration load (PD) through
measuring motor speed at longer period of time and battery
capacity (BC). Through these input conditions, the controller
determines which sources will be activated. By using this
strategy, battery plays important role as primary sources and
the battery capacity will be critical point in changing state.
The seven operation states are discussed further in following
section:
455
 TABLE II
CONTROL STRATEGY LOGIC ALGORITHM
50
State Input Condition Active Energy Sources ECE-47
PO PD BC SC FC Battery 45

1 - - - 0 0 0 40
2 Low Low High 0 0 1
3 Low Low Low 0 1 0 35

4 Low High High 0 1 1 30

Velocity/km/h
- - - - 1 0 0
25
5 High Low High 1 0 1
6 High Low Low 1 1 0 20

7 High High High 1 1 1 15

10
State 1: Shut off operation (Safety features).
State 2: Battery will be fully used to drive motor with no
5

high power demand. As part of conservation energy, the FC is 0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

not included in the operation and it will be activated only

Time/s

when the battery is in low condition. Fig. 4. Europen drive cycle ECE-47
State 3: FC takes over to drive the vehicle and charge the 50

battery until it returns to state 2. ECE-47

motor speed
State 4: As a result of a high power demand request, the 40

system is forced to activate FC as auxiliary energy source.

State 5: In this situation, the battery-powered vehicle 30

accelerates with the support of SC. Then, the system returns

to state 2 once all energy in SC is used up. Velocity/km/h 20

State 6: Battery is in critical state. The FC powered vehicle

accelerates with additional energy from SC. Once SC tank is 10

empty, the system will change to state 3.

State 7: When vehicle moves with high speed and require 0

acceleration, the system is configured to force activation of

all energy sources. -10
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time/seconds
In this system, FC is controlled by ON/OFF operation.
Therefore energy from the FC is supplied to the load during Fig. 5. Comparison vehicle(motor) speed with ECE-47
ON states. The system is built with aim to manage the 3000

operation of energy sources based on operational control 2500

Pelect
Pveh

strategy. Any excess energy from FC will be charged to the

battery. 2000

RESULT AND DISCUSSION 1500

Power/W

1000

The performance of this simulation model is compared 500

with the low speed vehicle in the European ECE-47 cycle.

This proposed model is suitable for performance and 0

emission testing on small vehicles like mopeds and electric -500

scooter. The test cycle starts by accelerating the vehicle from

-1000
0 to 48km/h within 15s and then stays constant at that speed 0 20 40 60
Time/s
80 100 120

for 50s. Then the vehicle is set to decelerate to 20km/h over

the next 15s before maintaining that speed for another 35s.
Finally, the vehicle continues to decelerate for another 8s
before coming to a halt. The drive cycle is shown in figure 4.
The comparison of the vehicle speed using this proposed
system and ECE-47 drive cycle are presented in figure 5.
There is a close match between both results except during
deceleration of the vehicle. Since PI regulator controls the
deceleration speed of the vehicle, a damping response is the
cause of the difference. It takes several seconds to regulate
the vehicle speed to reach a constant speed.
Fig. 6. Comparison vehicle and electrical load power
Fig. 6 shows the comparison of the electrical power
load,Pelect and vehicle power load, Pveh . As the vehicle starts
to accelerate, the average power demand from the DC motor
is 2.2 kW. Then the Pelect is slightly reduced although Pveh
remains greater than Pelect. due to the gaining of inertia motor
torque and speed of the vehicle. When the vehicle no longer
accelerates, both Pelect and Pveh maintain at 1.3kW. A step
down of the vehicle speed has caused a damping response in
the Pelect due to the use of motor drive system with PI
regulator to control vehicle speed. Overall the system is using

456
only battery as energy source, which is equivalent to state 2
of the proposed control strategy, as discussed in previous
150

Battery current/A
section.
100

Next Fig. 7 illustrates the comparison result when the

50

vehicle moves uphill or in heavy load situation using single 0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
80
source or multi sources system. The system shows some

FC current/A
60
different magnitude between single and multi sources. Due to 40

extreme demand of power, the EMS manages to trigger FC 20

and SC simultaneously and therefore the vehicle manages to 0

0 20 40 60 80 100 120
travel near the driving cycle. In this condition, the system 0.7

reflects state 7 and then return to state 3 after the energy in 0.65

SOC/%
the SC is exhausted. 0.6

Fig. 8 and 9 shows the performance of the vehicle when

0.55

0.5
SOC reach 50% (at 82s) that will cause the battery to be 0 20 40 60
Time/s
80 100 120

turned off while FC will be turned on. At this stage, the Fig. 9. Changing supply current at 82s
system is functioning similar to state 3 of control strategy
where FC will supply current to the motor and simultaneously
charge the battery.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the new vehicle concept for small HEV in
50
x ECE-47
simulation model is introduced. The analysis of simulation is
x
only battery compared to the European drive cycle ECE-47. The heavy
battery, FC and SC
40
load condition during driving cycle is also examined in order
to observe the effectiveness of the EMS. As an overall
30 analysis, this system manages to follow the test driving cycle
x x although some minor error was observed.
Velocity/km/h

20 x The proposed EMS for small HEV seems to have

potential to become the new generation of electric vehicle if a
10 proper improvement is applied. The combination of the three
x
renewable sources shows that they can be coordinated
0 together by implementing appropriate control strategy. In the
simulation model, the SOC detection, speed detection and
-10
battery charged are not fully developed yet. The research will
be continued to address this shortage.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time/s

Fig. 7. . Comparison battery and multi-sources of small HEV during

For future work, any known issues in regards to the
high load demand simulation models should be solved and then constructed as
hardware design. An interface board will be designed which
50
ECE-47 consist of EMS switching, DC/DC boost converter and
Vehicle speed
inverter or H-Bridge switching. A MATLAB D-SPACE
40
processor will be used for EMS control unit, converter signal
30
and data acquisition.
Velocity/km/h

20 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

10
This research is part of the work performed by Power
System Laboratory, National University of Malaysia. Author
0
thanks to UTeM and Ministry of High Education from
Malaysia for financial support.
-10
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
REFERENCES
Time/s

Fig. 8. Vehicle speed during changing supply current

[1] J. V. Mierlo, G. Maggetto and Ph. Lattaire, "Which energy source for
road transport in the future? A comparison of battery, hybrid and fuel
cell vehicles," Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 47, pp. 2748-
2760, 2006.
[2] P. Mulhall and A. Emadi, "Comprehensive Simulations and
Comparative Analysis of the Electric Propulsion Motor for a

457
 Solar/Battery Electric Auto Rickshaw Three-Wheeler," 35th Annual Power Electronics, Machines and Drives, PEMD 2010, vol. 2010, pp.
Conference of IEEE on Industrial Electronics, pp. 3785-3790, 2009. 1-7, 2010.
[3] P. Mullhall, S. G. Wirasingha, Young-Joo Lee and A. Emadi, "Solar- [28] J. V. Mierlo, P. V. den Bossche and G. Maggeto, "Models of energy
Assited Electric Auto Rickshaw Three-Wheeler," IEEE Transaction on sources for EV and HEV: fuel cells, batteries, ultracapacitors, flywheels
Vehicular Technology, vol. 59, pp. 2298-2307, 2010. and engine-generators," Power Sources, vol. 128, pp. 76-89, 2004.
[4] P. Garcia, L. M. Fernandez, C. A. Garcia and F. Jurado, "Fuel Cell- [29] A. El Amrani, A. Mahrane, F. Y. Moussa and Y. Boukennous, Solar
Battery Hybrid System for Transport Applications," International Module Fabrication, International Journal of Photoenergy, vol. 2007,
Conference on Electrical and System, pp. 1-5. pp. 1-5, 2007.
[5] P. Garcia, "Energy Management System of Fuel-Cell-Battery Hybrid [30] A. Balouktsis, T. D. Karapantsios, A. Antoniadis and I. Balouktsis,
Tramway," IEEE on Industrial Electronics, vol. Vol. 57, 2010. Load Matching in a Direct-Coupled Photovoltaic System-Application
[6] M. B. Burnett and L. J. Borle, "A power system combining batteries to Thevenins Equivalent Loads, International Journal of
and supercapacitors in a solar/hydrogen hybrid electric vehicle," IEEE, Photoenergy, vol. 2006, pp. 1-7, 2006.
2005.
[7] MathWorks, "SimPowerSystems, MATLAB," ed, 2008.
[8] P. Thounthong, V. Chunkag, P. Sethakul, B. Davat and M. Hinaje,
"Comparative Study of Fuel-Cell Vehicle Hybridization with Battery or
Supercapacitor Storage Device," IEEE Trans. on Vehicular Technology
vol. 58, pp. 3892-3904, 2009.
[9] S. Basu, Recent Trends in Fuel Cell Science and Technology, New
Delhi: Springer, 2007.
[10] S. Ahmed and D. J. Chmielewski, "Load Characteristics and Control of
a Hybrid Fuel Cell/Battery Vehicle," American Control Conference, pp.
2654-2659, 2009.
[11] D. C-H. Chao, P. J. van Duijsen, J.J. Hwang and C-H. Liao, "Modelling
of a Taiwan Fuel Cell Powered Scooter," International Conference on
Power Electronics and Drive System pp. 913-919, 2009.
[12] P. Thounthong, P. Sethakul, S. Rael and B. Davat, "Control of Fuel
Cell/Battery/ Supercapacitor Hybrid Source for Vehicle Applications,"
IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, pp. 1-6,
2009.
[13] P. Thounthong, V. Chunkag, P. Sethakul, S. Sikkabut, S. Pierfederici
and B. Davat, "Energy management of fuel cell/solar
cell/supercapacitor hybrid power source," Power Sources, vol. 128, pp.
313-324, 2010.
[14] M. B. Burnett and L. J. Borle, "A power system combining batteries
and supercapacitors in a solar/hydrogen hybrid electric vehicle," IEEE,
2005.
[15] D. Fewson, "Introduction to Power Electronics," Arnold, 1998.
[16] M. B. Camara, H. Gualous, F. Gustin and A. Berthon, "Control strategy
of Hybrid sources for Transport applications using supercapacitors and
batteries," IEEE, IPEMC 2006, 2006.
[17] L. Castaner and S. Silvestre, "Modelling Photovoltaic Systems Using
PSpice," New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, INC., 2003.
[18] M. Uzunoglu and M. S. Alam, "Dynamic modeling, design and
simulation of a PEM fuel cell/ultra-capacitor hybrid system for
vehicular applications," Energy Conversion and Management vol. 48,
2007.
[19] H. Merz, "Electric Machines and Drives," VDE Verlag, 2002.
[20] M. A. Hannan and A. Mohamed, "PSCAD/EMTDC Simulation of
Unified Series-Shunt Compensator for Power Quality Improvement,"
IEEE Transaction on Power Delivery, vol. 20, pp. 1650-1656, 2005.
[21] M. A. Hannan and K. W. Chan, "Modern Power Systems Transients
Studies Using Dynamic Phasor Models," International Conference on
Power System Technology-POWERCON, pp. 1-5, 2004.
[22] J. Larminie and J. Lowry , Electric Vehicle Technology Explained.
West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2003.
[23] S. A. Rahman, N. Zhang and J. Zhu "Modeling and Simulation of an
Energy Management System for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles,"
AUPEC 2008, 2008.
[24] A. R. Salisa, "A Comparative Analysis of Fuel Economy and Emissions
between a Conventional HEV and the UTS PHEV," IEEE, VTSI, p.
01447, 2009.
[25] Z. Song, W. Guangqiang and Z. Songlin"Study on the Energy
Management Strategy of DCT-based Series-Parallel PHEV,"
International Conference on Computing, Control and Industrial
Engineering, 2010.
[26] A. Jarushi and N. Schofield, "Modelling and Analysis of Energy Source
Combinations for Electric Vehicles," World Electric Vehicle Journal,
vol. Vol. 3, pp. 1-7, 2009.
[27] L. Karunarathne, J.T. Economou and K. Knowles, "Model Based
Power and Energy Management System for PEM Fuel Cell/ Li-ion
Battery Driven Propulsion System " IET International Conference on

458