Control of PEM fuel cell distributed generation systems

This paper presents modeling, controller design, and simulation study of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) distributed generation (DG) system. The overall configuration of the PEMFC DG system is given, dynamic models for the PEMFC power plant and its power electronic interfacing are briefly described, and controller design methodologies for the power conditioning units to control the power flow from the fuel cell power plant to the utility grid are presented. A MATLAB/Simulink simulation model is developed for the PEMFC DG system by combining the individual component models and the controllers designed for the power conditioning units. Simulation results are given to show the overall system performance including load-following and fault-handling capability of the system.