Energy Management of Fuel Cell/ Supercapacitor Hybrid Source Based on Linear and Sliding Mode Control

Abstract

This paper presents the modelling and control strategies based on PI and nonlinear sliding mode controllers of a hybrid fuel cell/supercapacitor source. It is composed of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC 500 W) and a supercapacitor stack (800 W) as a main and an auxiliary sources respectively, to supply the load requirements in the transient and steady states. A classical PI controller has been adapted to control DC bus voltage and to determine the FC's reference current. Due to the fast response in the transient state and its ability to work with a constant or variable frequency, a sliding mode controllers have been used to control the SC and FC currents through boost and DC-DC bidirectional converters, respectively. The simulation results underMatlab/Simulink showed that the proposed control strategies managed and controlled successfully the hybrid system and satisfied the load requirements with a stable and robust performances.