A Novel Fuel Cell-Based Power System Modeling Approach

Nowadays, fuel cells are the most promising source of energy for stationary applications. Unfortunately, the power density of fuel cells is not adequate for modern applications. A fuel cell - based hybrid power supply is required. The fuel cell is coupled with a high-energy density power source to improve performances of the composite power source. A power management stage is introduced between the two basic sources to control the power flow path from the fuel cell to the auxiliary source and the load. In order to avoid effects of a limited power density of the fuel cell on the whole power supply, sophisticated power management algorithms are implemented. Accurate modeling is required to test hybrid source performances as closely as possible to the actual working conditions since the simulation step, avoiding risks of experimental failure. In this paper, a fuel cell - battery hybrid power supply system for household appliances is presented. The power system is implemented in PSIM environment, the house model is implemented in MATLAB environment and MATLAB co-simulation is provided to test the whole composite system. Simulation results are shown to test the efficiency of the novel approach.