A hierarchical energy management strategy for DC microgrid hybrid energy storage systems based on fractional-order sliding mode controller

A hierarchical energy management strategy (EMS) for a fuel cell (FC)-supercapacitor (SC)‑lithium battery hybrid energy storage system (HESS), based on a fractional-order sliding mode controller (FOSMC), is proposed to address the nonlinear behavior of low-voltage direct current (DC) microgrid HESS. To fully exploit the energy of the SC, the system management layer divides the EMS into maximum power operation mode and state machine control algorithm operation mode. For the first time in equipment control layer, a FOSMC, more suitable for handling nonlinear characteristics, is employed, and its stability is evaluated using the Lyapunov method. Finally, a 48 V HESS experimental platform is constructed for validation, demonstrating that the proposed EMS enhances the stability, response speed, and robustness of the HESS. Compared to conventional sliding mode controller (SMC) and integral sliding mode controller (ISMC), the adoption of a FOSMC reduces the steady-state error of the bus voltage by at least 9.1 % and increases the response speed by at least 11.1 %, while exhibiting good robustness to external disturbances and uncertainties in controller parameters. This fills the current research gap in parameter robustness validation. •Hybrid energy storage system has nonlinear characteristics.•A layered energy management method for hybrid energy storage system is proposed.•Energy management strategy of device layer based on FOSMC is proposed.•More stable bus voltage and faster response compared with sliding mode controller.•FOSMC has anti-interference ability and strong parameter robustness.