A Review of Supercapacitor Balancing Circuits

Abstract

The adoption of the supercapacitor technology in electrified transportation systems and renewable energy systems is accelerating. To enhance the safety and economy of supercapacitor energy storage systems, balancing circuits are typically required. This paper reviews the existing works on supercapacitor balancing. Basic balancing circuits based on resistors, capacitors, non-isolated and isolated converters, and resonant converters are covered. Advanced balancing circuits including modular circuits and reconfigurable circuits are also examined. As for the balancing circuit control strategy, distributed control, observer-based control, fuzzy control, and model predictive control are investigated. Furthermore, this paper proposes to conduct a holistic investigation of the existing and emerging topologies and control strategies of the balancing circuits to transform the empirical works on supercapacitor balancing to a general framework.