Energy management system for a hybrid hydrogen fuel cell-supercapacitor in an islanded microgrid

Due to their dependence on weather conditions, renewable generators based on solar and wind have unpredictable and intermittent power outputs, compromising the main objective of a power system, which is to deliver reliable and uninterrupted power. Such generators introduce uncertainty into their functioning and planning, a way to deal with that is to operate them tied to the grid, in this case, the connection issues have been addressed; these issues being related associated with the power quality and protection. However, the problem will remain for islanded microgrids based entirely on renewable sources as such power systems can be characterised by inefficient and unreliable power output to the disadvantage of their users. In such a case, an energy storage facility is an option to deal with these drawbacks. Energy storage technologies come with different characteristics, some have high-specific energies and other high-specific powers. This study deals with an energy management of a composite energy storage system consisting of a fuel cell system and a supercapacitor. The objective is to develop a control strategy to maintain the balance between the supply and the demand.