Dynamic modeling, design and simulation of a combined PEM fuel cell and ultra-capacitor system for stand-alone residential applications

The available power generated from a fuel cell (FC) power plant may not be sufficient to meet sustained load demands, especially during peak demand or transient events encountered in stationary power plant applications. An ultracapacitor (UC) bank can supply a large burst of power, but it can not store significant amount of energy. The combined use of FC and UC has the potential for better energy efficiency, reducing the cost of FC technology, and improved fuel usage. In this paper, we present a FC which operates in parallel with an UC bank. A new dynamic model and design methodology for a FC and UC based energy source for stand-alone residential applications has been developed. Simulation results are presented using MATLABreg, Simulinkreg and SimPowerSystemsreg environment based on the mathematical and dynamic electrical models developed for the proposed system