Benefits of hybridisation of diesel driven rail vehicles: Energy management strategies and life-cycle costs appraisal

The results show that different energy storage technologies achieve diverse life cycle costs, triggering a range of investment, replacement and maintenance costs, as well as significantly reduced operational costs due to lower fuel consumption. In addition, the simulation results show that fuel consumption can be reduced up to 20%, in some cases rising to approximately 25% if energy management strategies are applied. Of these, Start/Stop and downsizing of the internal combustion engine are the most promising strategies for the emission reduction. Both require auxiliaries' electrification and appropriate integration of energy storage systems. LCC results also indicate that operational conditions with high annual mileage are most beneficial when a hybrid consisting of an internal combustion engine and an energy storage system is used in a high fuel price scenario.