Energy Management for Stand Alone Hybrid Photovoltaic – PEM Fuel Cells Systems

A better performance of photovoltaic (PV) generator is obtainedat high insolation. But at high insulation, the temperature of the PV system increases and leads to the drop down of the performance of the system making the system unable to supply the load. The problem becomes more difficult with irregular solar insolation, the system experience variation in his output, which is not good for the user.To overcome the problem, one of the solutions, may be the best, is to couple the PV generator with proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system particularly for stand-alone system for household demand. The simulation results show that with a good energy management, the PV-PEMFC hybrid system can supply the load in summer as well in winter time.This paper presents the energy management for the control of energy flow for a PV-PEMFC system in particular cases of household demand in Durban, South Africa.