IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO.

6, DECEMBER 2007 3225

Control Strategy of Fuel Cell and Supercapacitors
Association for a Distributed Generation System
Phatiphat Thounthong, Stphane Ral, and Bernard Davat, Member, IEEE
AbstractThis paper proposes an innovative control strategy
for a voltage-regulated dc hybrid power source employing polymer
electrolyte membrane fuel cell as the main energy source and
supercapacitors as the auxiliary power source for a distributed
generation system. This strategy is based on a standard dc link
voltage regulation, which is simpler than standard state machines
used for hybrid source control, and free of chattering problems.
Its originality lies in using only the storage device for supplying
the energy required to achieve the dc link voltage regulation.
Therefore, the main source of the hybrid system is considered as
a standard load, working only in regenerative braking, to keep
the storage device charged. The general structure of the studied
system, the control principle of the hybrid source, the realization
of the experimental bench, and the experimental validation are all
presented.
Index TermsHybrid power source, peak load shaving, poly-
mer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), power electronics,
power system control, supercapacitor.
I. INTRODUCTION
T
HE ENERGY and pollution crises are fast becoming the
biggest problem around the world. As a consequence,
novel renewable and clean energy power sources must be
considered. One of the prevalent alternative sources of electric
power is the fuel cell (FC) [1], [2]. An FC utilizes the chemical
energy of hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity without
generating pollution. The by-products are simply pure water
and heat. There are several types of FCs, which are charac-
terized by the electrolyte used. One of the most promising
is the small, lightweight and relatively easy to build polymer
electrolyte membrane FC (PEMFC), rst used by NASA in the
1960s as part of the Gemini space program [3].
Ellis et al. [4] described the expectation that FC power gener-
ation systems will be used in a growing number of applications:
in portable applications, in transportation applications, and in
stationary power applications, for which FC systems can pro-
Manuscript received January 28, 2005; revised August 8, 2007. This work
was supported in part by a Research Program in cooperation with the King
Mongkuts Institute of Technology North Bangkok under the Franco-Thai on
higher education and research joint project and in part by the French National
Center for Scientic Research (CNRS) and the Nancy Research Group in
Electrical Engineering (GREEN: UMR 7037).
P. Thounthong is with the Department of Teacher Training in Electrical Engi-
neering, King Mongkuts Institute of Technology North Bangkok (KMITNB),
Bangkok, 10800 Thailand (e-mail: Phatiphat.Thounthong@ensem.inpl-nancy.
fr; phtt@kmitnb.ac.th).
S. Ral and B. Davat are with the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine
(INPL), GREEN, CNRS (UMR 7037), 54516 Vanduvre-ls-Nancy, France
(e-mail: Stephane.Rael@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr; Bernard.Davat@ensem.inpl-
nancy.fr).
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIE.2007.896477
vide both power and heat with cogeneration efciencies as high
as 80%. Previous works have already highlighted the possibil-
ity of using the FC in distributed power generation systems.
Chandler and Eudy [5] reported experimental results carried out
on an FC transit bus, known as the hybrid FC/battery bus. This
bus has a rated power of 60 kW, and its energy source is com-
posed of a PEMFC as the main power source, and 48 Panasonic
lead acid 12-V batteries connected in series as the auxiliary
source. In addition, Rodatz et al. [6] presented the eld tests, in
urban and highway sections, of an FC/supercapacitor-powered
hybrid vehicle with a PEMFC (40 kW), and a supercapacitors
module (5.67 F, 360 V).
According to Schenck et al. [7] who worked with a 1.2-kW
Ballard Nexa PEMFC unit, and Thounthong et al. [8] who
worked with a 500-W PEMFC, it is widely accepted that one
of the key weak points of PEMFC systems is their dynamic
limitation. In fact, many works have drawn attention to the slow
FC system dynamics: Pukrushpan et al. [9] attempted to im-
prove the FC system dynamics by controlling the FC processor
to avoid stack starvation and damage, when current is rapidly
drawn from an FC; Corra et al. [10] worked with a 500-W
Ballard and a 500-W Avista PEMFC, and Thounthong et al.
[11] have improved the FC dynamics by utilizing a battery bank
as the secondary source to assist a PEMFC main source. The
FC system time constant is dominated by the compressor and
the membrane hydration level, and may be several hundredths
of a millisecond. As a result, fast load demands will cause
signicant voltage drop, particularly due to air starvation.
As an illustration, Fig. 1 presents the voltage response of our
FC (a 500-W PEMFC) to a current step, obtained by means of a
current controlled boost converter, which will be presented later
in this paper. Our FC test bench can operate in two different
ways regarding fuel ows: constant fuel ow [Fig. 1(a)], or
fuel ow adapted to the FC current reference [Fig. 1(b)]. The
effect of the ancillaries time constant can be seen on the voltage
curve in Fig. 1(b), compared with Fig. 1(a), which implies that
fuel supply and delivered electrical current do not coincide.
Fuel ow has difculty following the current step, and this
operating condition is evidently hazardous for the FC stack. It
is important to note that Schenck et al. [7] obtained the same
kind of response, and a similar time response, with a 1.2-kW
Ballard FC system.
It is therefore recommended, when utilizing an FC, to employ
a power loop or a current loop to prevent overloads and fault
conditions, and to associate it with, at least, a fast auxiliary
power source to improve the dynamic performances of the
whole system. Moreover, one can take advantage of this fast
auxiliary power source to achieve an actual hybrid source to
0278-0046/$25.00 2007 IEEE
3226 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007
Fig. 1. FC voltage response to a current step. Fuel ow conditions: (a) constant fuel ow (set for 50 A), (b) adapted fuel ow.
Fig. 2. FC and supercapacitor association for a distributed generation system.
disassociate mean power sizing from peak transient power
sizing, the aim being a reduction in volume and weight, and
in the case of FCs used as main energy source, the possibility
of regenerative braking. For example, some authors have de-
scribed the use of supercapacitors for dc voltage regulation of
FC main source [12], for elevator power supply [13], for power
assistance in a transportation network [14], or in an electrical
vehicle [15].
This paper deals with the conception and the achievement
of a voltage-regulated dc hybrid power source using a PEMFC
as the main energy source, and supercapacitors as the auxiliary
power source, as proposed in Fig. 2 [16]. Its interest is focused
on a special, yet simple, control strategy. This, of course, en-
ables the management of transient power demand, power peaks,
and regenerative braking with regards to FC and supercapacitor
constraints, but in such a way that the state denition and asso-
ciated problems of chattering are avoided. The general structure
of the studied system, the control principle of the hybrid source,
the realization of the experimental bench, and experimental
validation will be presented in the following sections.
II. HYBRID DC SOURCE STRUCTURE
The studied hybrid source comprises a small-scale 42-V dc
link supplied by a 500-W PEMFC, through a current nonre-
versible dc/dc converter, and by a supercapacitor bank, which
is connected to the dc link through a current reversible dc/dc
converter. The function of the FC is to supply mean power to
the load, whereas the storage device is used as a power source:
it supplies transient power demand, and peak loads required
during acceleration and deceleration.
Fig. 3. FC boost converter.
A. FC Converter
As the FC is not current reversible, a boost converter (Fig. 3),
is selected to adapt the low dc voltage delivered by the FC,
which is approximately 12.5 V at rated power, to the 42 V
dc bus [17]. Thus, the FC converter is composed of a high
frequency inductor L
1
, an output ltering capacitor C
1
, a diode
D
1
and a main switch S
1
. Switch S
2
is a shutdown device for
test bench security, to prevent the FC stack from a short circuit
in case of accidental destruction of S
1
, or of faulty operation
of the regulator. Taking into account the low voltage, power
MOSFETs for S
1
and S
2
are chosen.
B. Supercapacitor Converter
Supercapacitors are connected to the dc bus by means of
a two-quadrant dc/dc converter, as shown in Fig. 4. Super-
capacitor current, which ows across the storage device, can
be positive or negative, allowing energy to be transferred in
both directions. L
2
represents the inductor used for energy
transfer and ltering. The inductor size is classically dened
THOUNTHONG et al.: CONTROL STRATEGY OF FUEL CELL AND SUPERCAPACITORS ASSOCIATION 3227
Fig. 4. Two-quadrant supercapacitor converter.
by switching frequency and current ripple [18]. The converter
is driven by means of complementary pulses, generated by
a hysteresis comparator, and applied on the gates of the two
insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) S
3
and S
4
.
C. Hybrid Source Control
To manage the energy exchanges between the dc link, the
main source and the storage device, three operating modes (or
states) can be identied.
1) Charge mode, in which the main source supplies energy
to the storage device and to the load.
2) Discharge mode, in which both main source and storage
device supply energy to the load.
3) Recovery mode, in which the load supplies energy to the
storage device.
This approach has already been investigated before, for
example by Jiang and Dougal [19] and Gao et al. [20] who
worked on an unregulated voltage FC/battery hybrid source; by
Ayad et al. [21] who studied the control of an unregu-
lated voltage battery/supercapacitor hybrid source; and by
Thounthong et al. [22], [23] concerning a regulated voltage
FC/supercapacitor hybrid source. The problemof such a control
strategy is well known: the denition of system states implies
control algorithm permutations that may lead to a phenomenon
of chattering when the system is operating near a border be-
tween two states. Solutions exist to avoid such a phenomenon,
of course: hard ltering, hysteretic transition, and transition
dened by a continuous function.
The hybrid source control strategy presented hereafter is
not based on the state denition, so naturally it presents no
problem of chattering near state borders. Its basic principle
lies in using the storage device, which is the fastest energy
source of the system, for supplying the energy required to
achieve the dc link voltage regulation, as if this device were a
standard power supply. Therefore, the FC, although obviously
the main energy source of the system, is equivalent to a load
working only in regenerative braking, and may be seen as the
device that supplies energy to supercapacitors to keep them
charged.
Consequently, the supercapacitor converter is driven to real-
ize a classical dc link voltage regulation, and the FC converter
is driven to maintain the storage device at a given state-of-
charge. For reasons of safety and dynamics, these converters
are primarily controlled by inner current loops. As shown in
Fig. 5, a classical proportionalintegralderivative (PID) cor-
rector associated to a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) generator
Fig. 5. Inner current control loops of the hybrid source.
Fig. 6. DC link voltage regulation loop.
and a hysteresis corrector are selected for FC current control
and supercapacitor current control, respectively.
These current loops are supplied by two reference signals,
i
SuperCREF
and i
FCREF
, generated by the dc link voltage
regulation loop and the supercapacitor voltage regulation loop,
respectively (i
FCREF
also supplies the FC processor to adjust
fuel and air ows to the desired current). The rst one is
presented in Fig. 6. It uses the bus capacitive energy as state
variable, and the supercapacitor delivered power as command
variable, to obtain a natural linear transfer function for the
system.
The function called E
bus
/v
bus
is a voltage-to-energy trans-
formation, proportional for the capacitive bus to the square
function. It enables the generation of both bus energy ref-
erence and bus energy measurement, through bus voltage
reference v
BusREF
and bus voltage v
Bus
, respectively. Superca-
pacitor power reference p
SuperCREF
is generated by means of a
proportionalintegral (PI)-corrector. This signal is then divided
by the supercapacitor voltage, and limited to maintain super-
capacitor voltage within an interval [V
SuperCMin
, V
SuperCMax
].
The upper value of this interval corresponds to the rated voltage
of the storage device, and the lower value, traditionally equal to
V
SuperCMax
/2, to a level under which supercapacitor discharge
becomes ineffective. This results in supercapacitor current ref-
erence i
SuperCREF
.
The supercapacitor current saturation function, described in
Fig. 7, consists of limiting the reference i
SuperCREF
to the
3228 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007
Fig. 7. Supercapacitor current limitation function.
Fig. 8. Supercapacitor voltage regulation loop.
interval [I
SuperCMin
, I
SuperCMax
] dened, versus supercapaci-
tor voltage measure v
SuperCMea
as follows:
_
_
_
I
SuperCMin
=I
SuperCRated
min
_
1,
V
SuperCMax
V
SuperCMea
v
_
I
SuperCMax
=I
SuperCRated
min
_
1,
V
SuperCMea
V
SuperCMin
v
_
(1)
I
SuperCRated
and v being regulation parameters.
The supercapacitor voltage regulation loop is presented in
Fig. 8. It consists of a proportional (P)-controller limited in
level and slope, to respect constraints associated with the FC.
The reference signal i
FCREF
that drives the FC converter
through the FC current loop is then kept within an interval
[I
FCMin
, I
FCRated
]. The upper value of this interval corre-
sponds to the rated current of the FC, and the lower value should
be zero. Moreover, slope limitation to a maximum absolute
value of some amperes per second enables safe operation of
the FC, even during transient power demand.
Using this form of control, the state of the storage device is
naturally dened, through the dc link voltage regulation, by the
load power level and by its state of charge. In narrow steady
state conditions:
1) if load power is negative, the dc link voltage regula-
tion generates a negative supercapacitor current reference
i
SuperCREF
;
2) if load power is greater than the approximate FC rated
power, the dc link voltage regulation generates a positive
supercapacitor current reference i
SuperCREF
;
3) otherwise, the state of the storage device depends on its
state-of-charge: supercapacitor current will therefore be
positive if v
SuperC
> V
SuperCREF
, negative if v
SuperC
<
V
SuperCREF
.
In all cases, FC state depends only on supercapacitor voltage:
FC current will be strictly positive and less than I
FCRated
if
v
SuperC
< V
SuperCREF
. Otherwise it will be zero.
In transient conditions, as FC current dynamics have been in-
tentionally reduced, the storage device supplies load variations.
In effect, the dc link voltage regulation transforms a sudden
increase in load power into a sudden increase of supercapacitor
current, and on the contrary a sudden decrease in load power
into a sudden decrease of supercapacitor current.
III. SYSTEM EQUATIONS
A. FC Current Loop
To obtain the transfer function of the FC current loop,
the linearized differential equations are dened as follows
[24], [25]:
_
L
1
di
FC
(t)
dt
= v
FC
(t)R
L
1

i
FC
(t)(1D) v
Bus
(t)+V
Bus

d(t)
C
1
dv
Bus
(t)
dt
=(1D)

i
FC
(t)I
FC

d(t)

i
load
(t)
(2)
D nominal duty cycle of the PWM FC converter;

d duty cycle variation;

V
Bus
nominal dc bus voltage;
v
Bus
dc bus voltage variation;
I
FC
nominal FC current;

i
FC
FC current variation;

i
load
load current variation;
R
L
1
series resistance of L
1
. Note that series resistance of
C
1
is ignored.
For FC current measurement, a rst-order lter is used to
reduce harmonics due to FC converter switching. From (2),
the FC current loop can be modeled, taking into account V
P
,
the amplitude of the PWM saw tooth carrier signal, by the
following open loop transfer function:

i
FCMea
(s)

i
FCREF
(s)
=
PIDcontroller
..
G
C
(1 +T
Ci
s) (1 +T
Cd
s)
T
Ci
s

PWM
..
1
V
P
i
FC
(s)/ d(s)
..
G
i
(1 +T
z
s)
1 +
2

n
s +
_
s

n
_
2

lter
..
K
1
1 +T
1
s
(3)
with
_
G
i
=
I
FC
(1D)
T
z
=
V
Bus
C
1
(1D)I
FC
and
_
_
_

n
=
_
(1D)
2
L
1
C
1
=
R
L
1
C
1
(1D)
2

n
2
. (4)
The derivative time constant T
Cd
is chosen in order to
compensate for the lter pole 1/T
1
associated with the FC
current measurement lter. The gain G
C
and the integral time
constant T
Ci
are set to obtain the desired phase margin.
B. DC Link Voltage Loop
If the losses in both the FC converter and supercapacitor
converter are neglected, the dc link capacitive energy is given
versus supercapacitor power p
SuperC
, FC power p
FC
and load
power p
load
by the following differential equation:
dE
Bus
(t)
dt
= p
SuperC
(t) +p
FC
(t) p
load
(t) (5)
THOUNTHONG et al.: CONTROL STRATEGY OF FUEL CELL AND SUPERCAPACITORS ASSOCIATION 3229
which shows that the transfer function E
Bus
/p
SuperC
is a pure
integrator. The bus energy measurement is carried out by means
of the following calculation:
E
Bus
=
1
2
C
1
v
2
Bus
(6)
associated to a rst-order lter used to reduce harmonics due to
switching. Therefore, as far as the supercapacitor current loop
being much faster than the dc link voltage loop (so that it can be
considered as a pure unity gain), the open loop transfer function
associated to dc link voltage regulation can be written as
E
BusMea
(s)
E
BusREF
(s)
=
PI controller
..
K
E
(1 +T
E
s)
T
Es

E
Bus
/p
SuperC
..
1
s

lter
..
K
2
1 +T
2
s
. (7)
The PI-controller parameter has been designed by means of
the Symmetrical Optimum method.
C. Supercapacitor Voltage Loop
Finally, to obtain the open loop transfer function associated
with the supercapacitor voltage loop, power conservation (with-
out losses) can be written as
v
FC
(t) i
FC
(t) = C
SuperC
v
SuperC
(t)
dv
SuperC
(t)
dt
+ C
1
v
Bus
(t)
dv
Bus
(t)
dt
+p
load
(t) (8)
where C
SuperC
is the supercapacitor capacitance. Note that this
capacitance is known to be nonlinear, so that the system cannot
be made linear by the use of supercapacitor energy. If variations
are introduced, (8) becomes a rst-order system
V
FC

i
FC
(t) + v
FC
(t) I
FC
= C
SuperC
V
SuperC

d v
SuperC
(t)
dt
+C
1
V
Bus

d v
Bus
(t)
dt
+ p
load
(t) (9)
so that the transfer function may be written as a pure integrator,
with a gain depending on the operating point
v
SuperC
(s)

i
FC
(s)
=
V
FC
/V
SuperC
C
SuperC
s
(10)
where V
FC
and V
SuperC
are respectively FC voltage and super-
capacitor voltage at the considered operating point.
Because of the great capacitance of the storage device, using
an integral corrective action will lead to a fairly unstable loop.
A P-controller is sufcient, as far as the gain is high enough to
introduce only a little static error. Therefore, the supercapacitor
voltage loop can be modeled by the following transfer function:
v
SuperMea
(s)
v
SuperCREF
(s)
=
P controller
..
K
V

v
SuperC
/i
FC
..
V
FC
/V
SuperC
C
SuperC
s

lter
..
K
3
1 +T
3
s
.
(11)
Once again, a rst-order lter is used for supercapacitor
voltage measurement, to reduce switching harmonics.
Fig. 9. Hybrid source test bench.
TABLE I
FC CURRENT LOOP PARAMETERS
TABLE II
DC BUS VOLTAGE LOOP PARAMETERS
TABLE III
SUPERCAPACITOR CURRENT LIMITATION FUNCTION PARAMETERS
TABLE IV
SUPERCAPACITOR VOLTAGE LOOP PARAMETERS
IV. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF THE
HYBRID SOURCE CONTROL
A. Hybrid Source Description
The test bench is presented in Fig. 9. The dc link voltage
reference v
BusREF
is set to 42 V. The dc link capacitance C
1
is
equal to approximately 700 mF. It is composed of output capac-
itances of both the FC converter and supercapacitor converter,
and of input capacitance of the load converter.
The PEMFCsystem(500 W, 40 A, 13 V) was achieved by the
Zentrum fr Sonnenenergie und Wasserstoff-Forschung (ZSW)
society. It is composed of 23 cells of 100 cm
2
in series. It
is supplied using pure hydrogen from bottles under pressure,
and with clean and dry air from a compressor. The super-
capacitive storage device is obtained by means of 12 SAFT
supercapacitors (capacitance: 3500 F, rated voltage: 2.5 V, rated
3230 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007
Fig. 10. Hybrid source response during motor starting. Motor speed: (a) 600 r/min, (b) 1000 r/min.
current: 400 A, low frequency equivalent series resistance:
0.8 m) connected in series. Maximum supercapacitor voltage
V
SuperCMax
is then 30 V.
The frequency of the PWM that drives the FC converter is
25 kHz, and its amplitude V
P
is 10 V. Inductor L
1
is obtained
by means of a ferrite core, its inductance is 72 H, and its
series resistance R
L
1
is 10 m. Diode D
1
is a STPS80H100TV
Schottky rectier (100 V, 40 A), and both switches S
1
and S
2
are STE180NE10 power MOSFET transistors (100 V, 180 A).
Table I summarizes FC current loop parameters, which have
been calculated to obtain a phase margin of about 55

.
As mentioned before, the supercapacitor converter is driven
by a hysteresis current controller, with a current ripple of 6 A.
This converter was initially designed for more general purposes,
so that two IGBT SKM200GB123D (1200 V, 200 A) are used
for switches S
3
and S
4
. The inductor L
2
is obtained by means
of a ferrite core, its inductance is 54 H, and its rated current
is 200 A.
B. Control Description
Measurements of the FC current i
FC
, the supercapacitor
current i
SuperC
, the dc link voltage v
Bus
and the supercapacitor
voltage v
SuperC
are carried out by means of zero-ux Hall
effect sensors. Parameters associated with the dc link voltage
regulation loop, for a phase margin of 58

, can be seen in
Table II.
Parameters associated with the supercapacitor current limi-
tation function, and the supercapacitor voltage regulation loop,
are detailed in Tables III and IV, respectively. The FC current
absolute slope limitation is set to 4 A s
1
. This value has been
experimentally determined as the highest current slope of our
FC system, where no fuel starvation occurs.
These two loops, which generate current references
i
SuperCREF
and i
FCREF
, have been implemented in the real-
time card dSPACE DS1104, through the mathematical en-
vironment of MatlabSimulink, with a sampling frequency
of 25 kHz. Moreover, ControlDesk software enables changes
to the parameters of the control. It is also used for driving
the load.
C. Experimental Validation
The experimental tests have been carried out by connecting
the dc link to an active load composed of a current reversible
chopper, loaded by a dc motor coupled with a dc generator. The
motor is current-controlled by means of a hysteresis corrector,
and speed-controlled by means of a P-corrector. Note that
THOUNTHONG et al.: CONTROL STRATEGY OF FUEL CELL AND SUPERCAPACITORS ASSOCIATION 3231
Fig. 11. Hybrid source response during motor braking. Motor speed: (a) 600 r/min, (b) 1000 r/min.
mechanical and magnetic losses are such that the FC rated
operating point is obtained around 750 r/min.
Fig. 10 presents waveforms obtained at motor start. These
are: dc link voltage, motor speed, load power, motor, FC
and supercapacitor currents, FC and supercapacitor voltage.
The initial state is zero for both the FC and supercapacitor
currents, and 25 V for the supercapacitor voltage. In the case
of Fig. 10(a), the nal motor speed is 600 r/min, so that the
nal FC current is less than I
FCRated
. It can be seen that:
1) the storage device supplies most of the power required
during motor acceleration;
2) the peak load power required during motor start is about
500 W, which is comparable with the FC rated power,
and the steady-state load power is about 350 W, entirely
supplied by the FC;
3) the FC current increases with limited slope, up to a level
lower than 40 A;
4) the supercapacitor current, after a sharp increase dur-
ing motor acceleration, decreases slowly down to zero,
simultaneously;
5) the nal supercapacitor voltage is lower than 25 V, be-
cause of the static error introduced by the P-corrector of
the supercapacitor voltage loop.
In the case of Fig. 10(b), the nal motor speed is 1000 r/min,
so that the nal FC current is I
FCRated
. Thus, the storage
device, which once again supplies most of the power required
during motor acceleration, remains in a discharge state after
motor start. In fact, the nal supercapacitor current is 10 A,
because the steady-state load power (about 600 W) is greater
than the FC rated power. Note that the FC current increases up
to 40 A in 10 s (and here slope limitation of 4 A s
1
can be
calculated), and that peak load power is about 1 kW, which is
twice the FC rated power. In both cases, only little perturbations
on the dc link voltage signal can be observed.
Fig. 11 presents waveforms obtained at motor stop. The nal
state is zero for both the FC and supercapacitor currents, and
25 V for the supercapacitor voltage. In the case of Fig. 11(a),
the initial motor speed is 600 r/min. It can be shown that the
storage device rst recovers the power supplied to the dc link
by the FC and by the motor regenerative braking (the motor
current is negative), and then is slightly charged by the FC up to
25 V. The FC current immediately decreases with limited slope,
and in a second phase (supercapacitor nal charge) slowly
decreases down to zero. The peak load power during motor
braking is about 150 W, recovered by the storage device
thanks to the dc link voltage regulation loop, which imposes
negative supercapacitor current.
3232 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 54, NO. 6, DECEMBER 2007
In the case of Fig. 11(b), the initial motor speed is 1000 r/min
and the storage device is more deeply discharged than in the
previous case, demonstrating three phases: rst, the storage
device recovers the power supplied to the dc link by the FC
and the motor regenerative braking; second, it recovers the
constant power supplied to the dc link by the FC; and third,
it is charged by the FC up to 25 V. During the two rst phases,
the FC current is constant and equal to 40 A (I
FCRated
). In
the third phase, it decreases down to zero. The peak load
power during motor braking is about 450 W. Once again,
only little perturbations on the dc link voltage signal can be
seen, which is of major importance in the proposed control
algorithm.
V. CONCLUSION
The most essential objective of this paper is to propose a
new strategy for controlling a distributed dc link supplied by
a hybrid source using supercapacitors as a fast auxiliary source,
in association with a PEMFC as the main source. This strategy
is based on a standard dc link voltage regulation, so that it is
simple and clear-cut. Contrary to what is usually done in the
eld of hybrid source control, no state machine is used, and no
control algorithm permutation is needed.
Experimental results carried out using a hybrid system test
bench, which employs a storage device composed of 12 SAFT
3500 F supercapacitors connected in series, and a ZSW 500-W
PEMFC, have evidently shown the possibility of improving the
transient performance of the FC, and validated the proposed
control principle. This principle can, of course, be applied to
other kinds of auxiliary power source, such as Li-ion batteries,
and with other kinds of main sources. The only condition to
ensure good operation is that the dc link voltage regulation be
much faster than the storage device voltage regulation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Dr. I. Sadli for operating the
FC system during experimentations.
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Phatiphat Thounthong received the B.S. and
M.E. degrees in electrical engineering from King
Mongkuts Institute of Technology North Bangkok
(KMITNB), Bangkok, Thailand, in 1996 and 2001,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical en-
gineering from Institut National Polytechnique de
Lorraine, Nancy, France, in 2005.
From 1997 to 1998, he was an Electrical Engineer
with E. R. Metal Works, Ltd. (EKARAT Group),
Thailand. From 1998 to 2002, he was an Assistant
Lecturer at KMITNB where he is currently a Lec-
turer. His current research interests include power electronics, electric drives,
and electrical devices (FC, batteries and supercapacitor).
THOUNTHONG et al.: CONTROL STRATEGY OF FUEL CELL AND SUPERCAPACITORS ASSOCIATION 3233
Stphane Ral received the M.E. degree in electrical
engineering from the Ecole Nationale Suprieure
des Ingnieurs Electriciens de Grenoble, Grenoble,
France, in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from the Institut National Polytechnique
de Grenoble, Grenoble, France, in 1996.
Since 1998, he has been an Assistant Professor
at the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine,
Nancy, France. His research interests include power
electronic components, supercapacitors, batteries,
and FCs.
Bernard Davat (M89) received the Engineers
degree from Ecole Nationale Suprieure
dElectrotechnique, dElectronique, dInformatique,
dHydraulique et des Telecommunications,
Toulouse, France, in 1975, and the Ph.D. and
Docteur dEtat degrees in electrical engineering
from Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse,
Toulouse, France, in 1978 and 1984, respectively.
From 1980 to 1988, he was a Researcher at
French National Center for Scientic Research, Lab-
oratoire dElectrotechnique et dElectronique Indus-
trielle. Since 1988, he has been a Professor at Institut National Polytechnique de
Lorraine, Nancy, France. He is the author of Power Semiconductor Converters.
His current research interests include power electronics, drives, and new
electrical devices (FC and supercapacitor).