Energy Management Strategy of a PV/Fuel Cell/Supercapacitor Hybrid Source Feeding an off-Grid Pumping Station

This work aims to develop an accurate energy management strategy for a hybrid renewable energy system feeding a pumping station. A developed model under Simulink environment is used to compare the performance of the pumping system when it is only fed by a photovoltaic generator, by a hybrid photovoltaic and fuel cell system and finally by a hybrid photovoltaic, fuel cell and a supercapacitor system. The developed control strategy is based on Fuzzy Logic control technique. Several simulations in different dramatic scenarios of working conditions show that the developed control strategy brought major enhancements in system performance and that the use of the supercapacitor makes economic profits by reducing the fuel cell production during critical solar irradiation periods. Keywords—Energy management strategy; simulink; pumping station; photovoltaic generator; fuel cell generator; supercapacitor; fuzzy logic control technique