Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Energy Management Modeling And Study Of Its Performance

Energy has become one of the most valuable resources of our society, which has generated a massive increase in the consumption of energy obtained from fossil fuels, particularly in the transportation area.  Thus, the development of a sustainable transportation infrastructure has become imperative. We propose a system to maximize the benefits of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), based on the integration of different levels of information. In a low level, the energy consumption of a single vehicle is optimized using the Energy Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS). In a higher level, the optimization is accomplished for the predicted velocity profile, which is obtained from traffic information through Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). For that purpose, the model of the components of a PHEV is integrated in an ad-hoc simulator which is based on a forward looking approach and implemented using MATLAB - Simulink. The model and the evaluation of its energy management strategy performance are presented. Optimized velocity profiles were evaluated for conventional vehicles, showing average improvements in the energy consumption of 50%. It is expected to have further improvements for the PHEV. In addition, a system penetration study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the PHEV inclusion in a roadway network. The results showed that increased penetration rates of PHEVs improve the overall fuel efficiency of the network.