Battery Cell State of Charge Control in AC Battery Using a Consensus-Based Distributed Control Scheme implemented with Hardware-in-the Loop

The objective of this paper is to validate a novel consensus-based control scheme for an AC battery system through hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. The proposed AC battery, designed with a modular multilevel converter (MMC), integrates battery cells with similar characteristics such as nominal voltage, state of health (SoH), and capacity. This flexible architecture allows for cost-effective and reconfigurable battery packs suitable for a broad range of applications, from electrified vehicles to stationary energy storage. The consensus-based control scheme aims to regulate the State of Charge (SoC) among the battery cells, ensuring balanced charge levels and enhancing overall system performance. To achieve this, local controllers (LC) are implemented within each SM of the MMC, facilitating modular computation and control. The HIL simulation framework is employed to rigorously test and validate the proposed control strategy under realistic operating conditions. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the consensus-based control in maintaining balanced SoC across battery cells. This validation through HIL simulation underscores the practicality and reliability of the proposed AC battery system for diverse real-world applications.