Performance analysis of supercapacitor integration in photovoltaic energy storage system

The energy fluctuation produced by the photovoltaic energy influenced by the change of solar irradiance and the fluctuating load profiles requires an energy storage system. The batteries are defined as devices of high-energy and low-power, while the supercapacitors are of high power capability that makes them highly suitable for use in conjunction with the electrochemical batteries. The SCs have opposite characteristics than the batteries. Indeed, they deliver a high power with a low energy. This paper presents a study of the photovoltaic energy storage by using a hybrid batteries-SCs system. Supercapacitors are used to reduce their stresses and to improve batteries life. In this study, we focus on the investigating of the performance of the RMS current gain in battery, the gain in energy losses, the total energy efficiency and the elimination rate of surge load power in different operating state conditions, these parameters are also investigated versus the SCs cost. All tests are carried with different number of parallel SCs and the filter constant.