Battery Management Strategies Optimization for Urban Plug-in Hybrid Buses

Abstract

Urban traffic is among the main air pollution sources in our cities. Consequently, one of the main lines of action in the transition towards the future sustainable smart cities is reducing tailpipe emissions. The electrification of vehicles is a feasible solution that is currently being implemented, and it will allow achieving huge savings in traffic pollutant emissions. However, they have some drawbacks like, the limited autonomy or the long recharging times. Plug-in Electric Hybrid (PEH) buses emerge as a more flexible solution while still highly reducing pollution levels. They can switch between electric motor and diesel engine at any time, allowing an efficient location of zero-emission zones (ZEZ) that not only provide environmental benefits but also social. The current strategies for managing the battery are very conservative and na¨ıve, but more advance strategies can make use of their full potential. This extended abstract presents our work [2], recently published in Sustainable Cities and Society where the Multi-objective Efficient PEH Bus Operation Problem, MEPBO for short, was proposed. It proposes that a tailored location of the ZEZ, i.e. a tailored battery management strategy can enlarge the electric range of the bus while at the same time reduce the pollution. A novel methodology for accurately estimating the energy consumption of the PEH bus is presented and two multi-objective optimization algorithms from the state of the art are used to solve this problem.