Holistic Modelling of a Fuel Cell Power System and FPGA Controller using Handel-C

The paper is concerned with the research work carried out in the area of holistic modelling of renewable energy systems, targeting field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) for the rapid prototyping of the digital electronic controllers. The object of the novel approach, using DK4 design and modelling environment from Celoxica, based on Handel-C novel programming language, is a fuel cell power system, consisting of: 2.5 kW fuel cell stack, buck converter, PI controller and a pulse-width modulator (PWM). Initially, the system was simulated using Matlab/Simulink/SimPowerSystem toolbox, for comparison. Later on, the model was successfully developed in Handel-C, following the new approach that allows the holistic functional simulation and optimisation of a system to be performed in the same environment as its controller hardware implementation and timing analysis/verification. The controller design was physically implemented in hardware onto a RC203 development board containing a Virtex II Xilinx FPGA with 3 million equivalent logic gates per chip and was successfully tested experimentally. The parameters of the implemented system can be observed directly at the board´s input/output interface and a real fuel cell power system can be connected directly to the newly designed hardware implemented digital controller