Simulink test bench for a hybrid battery-supercapacitor power system

This paper presents a test bench for a hybrid power system composed of a Lithium-ion rechargeable battery and a supercapacitor. Using this test-bench the parameters and the functionality of the entire hybrid power system can be estimated. The purpose of the paper is to test the behavior of the complete system during high load variations. In a power system the advantage of battery storage consists in high charge/discharge efficiency with the condition that the charging/discharging cycles are carefully controlled. The high power demand in many applications with short power surges increases the battery stress, drastically affecting its life time and capacity. A method to reduce this stress is proposed in the paper by using a supercapacitor connected in parallel with the battery. A comparison between the proposed system and one using only a Lithium-ion battery is conducted and the results are presented.