Energy Management System for a Multi‐Source Electric Power System Architecture in More Electric Aircraft

ABSTRACT This research paper intends to present a detailed design of electric power system architecture of half‐ and full‐span of an aircraft and the energy management system in aircraft EPS to operate fuel cells, battery stacks, and supercapacitors at appropriate times. A fuel cell of appropriate power rating is used as APU for the AC bus in the aircraft in conjunction with a supercapacitor. A battery stack is connected to the DC bus through a bidirectional DC to DC converter which acts as APU for the low‐power high‐priority DC loads with faster dynamic response and caters to the power needs of these loads under emergency conditions. The battery keeps getting charged from fuel cell under normal operating conditions. The system response is analyzed over a flight cycle with randomly changing load under normal and emergency conditions. The research is intended to use the best qualities of fuel cells, battery stack, and supercapacitors for the role of the APU in an aircraft. All three of them at proper power ratings are implemented and an energy management system is developed to use fuel cell for major loads, supercapacitor for sudden load changes, and battery stacks for minor load changes.