Operation-mode control of active-clamped bi-directional flyback converter as EDLC charger and discharger

An EDLC (electric double layer capacitor) is attractive as a new energy-storage element, and its application as a substitute of the battery has been proposed. However, as the characteristics of EDLC are different from the battery, it is necessary to control charging and discharging procedures under some conditions matched to the demand and the system scale. This paper proposes to use an active-clamped bidirectional flyback converter as a EDLC charger and discharger. A single-chip microcontroller is used to control the operation mode of the flyback converter. An independent photovoltaic power generation system with EDLC charger/discharger is built as an example and the effectiveness of the bidirectional flyback converter as the charger/discharger is examined