Controlling multi-input converters to act as electric energy router

It is undeniable that the energy consumption will continue to grow and the negative impact of using fossil fuels to produce it will favor the use of alternative energies. There has been an intensive research to develop clean energies from some decades now. As a result electric energy can now be generated using photovoltaic cells, wind power, fuel cells among other clean sources. Each source has advantages and disadvantages, hence, it is generally accepted that a combination of them is the best. Power electronics specialists have started to develop schemes to allow sources of different characteristics to cooperate to power a load. The device that achieve this goal has been called "energy router" by some researchers. In this work, it is shown that common multi-input power converter can function as energy routers if they are properly controlled. A control algorithm is proposed for these converters.