Optimized Energy Management Control of a Hybrid Electric Locomotive

Hybrid electric propulsion, using batteries for energy storage, is making significant inroads into railway transportation because of its potential notable fuel savings and the related reductions in greenhouse gases emissions hybrid traction over non-electrified lines. Due to inherent complexity hybridized powertrains, combining different power conversions storage capabilities, corresponding operation their management needs be precisely optimized order achieve minimum possible consumption. Having this mind, paper proposes a real-time control strategy diesel–electric locomotive based on optimization results obtained by means dynamic programming algorithm aimed at consumption minimization while honoring battery state-of-charge constraints powertrain physical constraints. The final result, expressed terms optimal reference (target), used as an additional input controller within system. subsequent simulation analysis shows clear economy improvement with 22.9% featuring equipped conventional one.