Adaptive Rate-Limit Control for Energy Storage Systems

An adaptive energy management control with an integrated variable rate-limit function is described for an energy storage system (ESS). The proposed control protects the primary power source(s) in the system as effectively as possible from sudden load transients within the constraints of the available stored energy. The control can be designed to use the available energy more aggressively during load changes in the low- or high-power regions while offering the lowest possible rate-of-change of the main source power or offers a fixed minimum rate-of-change in power for a given total load and amount of energy. The control design is described in detail and demonstrated experimentally when applied to a supercapacitor ESS within an aircraft test facility.