Power Flow Control Strategy for Electric Vehicles with Renewable Energy Sources

The paper analyses the benefits given by a compound storage system with batteries and supercapacitors on board of road electrical vehicles supplied by fuel cells. A control strategy for the management of the energy is developed for the maximization of the vehicle autonomy and for the increase of the electrochemical battery life. The controller is based on two finite state machines and it is implemented on the DC/DC converters that interface fuel cells and supercapacitors to the batteries. Experimental tests made on a sample electrical drive fully validate the effectiveness of the suggested control technique.