Energy Management Strategy Based on Multiple Operating States for a Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell/Energy Storage DC Microgrid

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 136
• Main Authors: Han, Ying, Chen, Weirong, Li, Qi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.01.2017
• Subjects: Arrays; battery bank; DC microgrid; Distributed generation; Electric charge; Energy management; energy management strategy; Energy storage; Fuel cells; Fuel technology; multiple operating states; photovoltaic (PV) array; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC); Proton exchange membrane fuel cells; Solar cells; State of charge; Stochasticity; Strategy; Volatility
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en10010136

It is a great challenge for DC microgrids with stochastic renewable sources and volatility loads to achieve better operation performance. This study proposes an energy management strategy based on multiple operating states for a DC microgrid, which is comprised of a photovoltaic (PV) array, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system, and a battery bank. This proposed strategy can share the power properly and keep the bus voltage steady under different operating states (the state of charge (SOC) of the battery bank, loading conditions, and PV array output power). In addition, a microgrids test platform is established. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed energy management strategy, the strategy is implemented in a hardware system and experimentally tested under different operating states. The experimental results illustrate the good performance of the proposed control strategy for the DC microgrid under different scenarios of power generation and load demand.