Battery management for fuel cell/battery hybrid power supply system

This paper describes an operation control method for fuel cell/battery hybrid power supply systems and a state of charge (SOC) estimation method to simulate their operation. Quickly charging or discharging batteries can compensate for demand load power fluctuation, but battery management is essential in these hybrid power supply systems. In this study, a control method for maintaining a constant value of SOC is proposed and applied to experiments using a charger/discharger and small 6-Ah Ni-MH batteries. An SOC estimation method is also proposed to simulate the operations under fluctuating load demand. The characteristics of the control method are clarified through simulation studies. These results show the effectiveness of the control method at maintaining SOC.