A fuel cell power plant includes an energy storage system connected in parallel with a fuel cell system. The fuel cell system includes a controller, a fuel flow system, an air flow system, and an internal water management system. The controller is operable to receive, as inputs, the energy storage system state of charge and the power demand from an electric load. The controller is further operable to determine a power split set point and execute commands, as output, to control operation of the air flow system, wherein the air flow system actively regulates the proportion of current flow between the fuel cell system and the energy storage system to meet the power demand of the electric load.

A motor drive control method is provided for controlling a speed of a motor such that a measured speed value of the motor follows a speed command value. The motor drive control method includes an on/off driving operation of driving a torque of the motor based on the speed command value in such a way that the torque of the motor is repeatedly turned on/off on preset cycle and duty. The motor drive control method and system can markedly enhance efficiency of a motor by reducing switching loss and current ripple loss of an inverter in a low-speed driving period of a high-speed motor.

The disclosure relates to an electrical energy supply device having a plurality of usage units, each of which is adapted to generate or to buffer electrical energy. The disclosure proposes that the energy supply device carries out an energy exchange with multiple external components at the same time through a busbar assembly and in the energy supply device the usage units are divided up into strands and each strand end of the strand is connected across a respective galvanically separable switching unit.

Provided is a two-power-supply load driving fuel cell system capable of improving the durability of the fuel cell and the power efficiency of the system. Even if the variation of a load terminal voltage occurs, the variation of the output terminal of an FC can be suppressed due to the high-speed operation of an FCVCU including an SiC-FET, enabling the durability of the FC to be ensured. In addition, since IGBTs are employed in a BATVCU having large average passing power, the power loss of a fuel cell system can be reduced. It is therefore possible to construct a system that takes advantage of the characteristics of the switching elements used in the FCVCU and the BATVCU.

A current control system includes a boost converter, and a converter controller that selectively performs control in a continuous mode using a calculated duty ratio for the continuous mode and control in a discontinuous mode using a calculated duty ratio for the discontinuous mode. The converter controller performs, at least in calculation of the duty ratio for the continuous mode, rising speed adjustment processing for adjusting a parameter used for the calculation of the duty ratio so that a rising amount of the duty ratio is restricted relative to the duty ratio used in a last cycle in accordance with a predetermined limit value, so as to restrict a rising speed of the duty ratio for the continuous mode more than a rising speed of the duty ratio for the discontinuous mode.

An MG-ECU obtains a rotational speed Na of an ACP. The MG-ECU transmits the obtained rotational speed (a PM reception rotational speed) Na of the ACP to a PM-ECU through communication. The PM-ECU obtains a rotational speed predicted value Np by adding a rotational speed change width Cvw to the PM reception rotational speed Na received from the delayed MG-ECU. A limit torque Tr12 is obtained through the use of the obtained rotational speed predicted value Np and an ACP permissible power level line L1.

A fuel cell power generation plant is disclosed. The plant includes fuel cell systems, each of which includes a fuel cell stack, sensors, actuators, a DC-DC converter and a microcontroller. The stack is coupled to a DC bus via the converter. The microcontroller communicates with the sensors, the actuators and the converter, and is configured to acquire sensor data from the sensors and obtain control signals for the actuators and the converter. The plant further includes an inverter coupled with the converter of each system via the DC bus and coupled to a power load, a first power line communication (PLC) modem coupled with the microcontroller of each system, a second PLC modem coupled with the first PLC modem via the DC bus; and a plant controller coupled with the second PLC modem and communicating with the inverter. A method of communication for use in a fuel cell power generation plant is also disclosed.

Improved methods are disclosed for shutting down and storing a fuel cell system, particularly for below freezing temperature conditions. The methods comprise stopping power production from the fuel cell stack, monitoring its temperature, and repeatedly performing a predetermined warming operation if the stack temperature falls to a normal threshold temperature. In the improved methods, either an initial threshold temperature and/or an initial warming operation are used that differ from the respective normal threshold temperature and the predetermined warming operation.

A method for operating a power generation system including a fuel-cell is presented. The method includes detecting a water deficient condition of the fuel-cell. The method further includes operating, in response to detecting the water deficient condition of the fuel-cell, at least one auxiliary load of the power generation system via use of an electrical current generated by the fuel-cell to maintain a steam-carbon ratio in the fuel-cell above a threshold steam-carbon ratio value. A control sub-system for operating the power generation system is also presented. Moreover, a power generation system including the fuel-cell, the least one auxiliary load, and the control sub-system is presented.

There is provided a fuel cell mounting structure including (i) a fuel cell which is configured to be disposed in a vehicle where a drive motor that drives rear wheels is placed in a vehicle rear portion, the fuel cell placed on the vehicle upper side of a suspension member disposed in a vehicle front portion and connected via a plurality of anti-vibration members to the suspension member, and (ii) auxiliaries that are attached to the fuel cell in a state in which the auxiliaries do not contact the suspension member and include at least an air compressor and a pump.