Simple battery inverter model in Simscape Electrical

Hi everyone,

I’m an electrical engineering student and need to couple batteries into my power network model. I currently have an inverter model built in Simulink/SimPowerSystems (SPS), but I’m struggling to convert it into an equivalent Simscape Electrical version. I’m looking for the simplest possible inverter model that can handle battery charging and discharging.

Does anyone have a minimal Simscape Electrical example or a reference model that I could use as a starting point? Any guidance or shared files would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Umar]

Hi @Mikel,

Saw your post and figured I'd put together everything I found so you don't have to chase it down yourself.

First-the good news. What you're trying to do (coupling a battery to an inverter in Simscape Electrical) is totally doable, and there's actually a clean, minimal path to get there. The tricky part is really just the SPS-to-SE migration, so let me walk you through it.

The Simplest Inverter to Start With

MathWorks has an official example called the Single-Phase Half-Bridge Inverter with Ideal Switches. It's exactly what it sounds like — a DC link, two IGBT (Ideal, Switching) blocks with anti-parallel diodes, and a load. PWM gate signals control the switches. That's your foundation. Once you have that running, everything else is just layering on top. If you need three-phase, there's a packaged "Converter (Three-Phase)" block under Simscape Electrical > Converters that saves you from wiring six switches by hand.

The Battery Block

Under Simscape Electrical > Energy Storage, grab the Battery block — it's the direct replacement for the old SPS Generic Battery. It handles charge/discharge, state of charge (SOC), and voltage dynamics out of the box. For your use case (simple charge/discharge coupling), the behavioral version is fine. If you ever need higher fidelity, there's a Table-Based variant that takes OCV vs. SOC lookup tables.

One useful trick: right-click the Battery block → Battery > Basic characteristics. It plots voltage-charge curves without needing a full model. Great for sanity-checking your parameters against a datasheet before you build anything.

How to Wire It All Together

Here's the minimal block recipe:

Battery (Energy Storage) → DC link Capacitor → IGBT switches (×2 for half-bridge, ×6 for three-phase)

Voltage Sensor + Current Sensor for feedback

PWM Generator on the Simulink control side

One Solver Configuration block and one Electrical Reference (ground) — these are non-negotiable in any SE model

Watch Out For These Gotchas

A few things that'll bite you if you're coming from SPS:

1. Signal domains changed. SPS used Simulink signals everywhere. SE uses physical connection lines (the blue ones). You'll need Simulink-PS Converter and PS-Simulink Converter blocks wherever your control logic meets the physical network.

2. No powergui in SE. Replace it with the Solver Configuration block — don't bring powergui over.

3. If you try the spsConversionAssistant, it can help as a scaffold, but it sometimes converts blocks into subsystems that lose their original functionality. Treat its output as a rough draft, not a finished model.

4. Solver settings matter. For the half-bridge example, MathWorks recommends ode23t (Mod. stiff/Trapezoidal), max step size 1e-4, relative tolerance 1e-4. Worth setting that up from the start.

Links Worth Bookmarking

Half-Bridge Inverter example: mathworks.com/help/sps/ug/example-model-single-phase-half-bridge-inverter-ideal-switches.html

Battery block reference: mathworks.com/help/simscape-battery/ref/battery.html

Controlled charge/discharge example: mathworks.com/help/simscape-battery/ug/perform-controlled-charging-discharging-on-battery-module.html

SPS → SE migration guide: mathworks.com/help/sps/ug/upgrade-sps-models-to-use-simscape-blocks.html

Hope this gets you unstuck. Start with the half-bridge + Battery block, get a basic charge/discharge loop working, and then build from there. Feel free to reply if you hit a wall — happy to dig into specifics.

Good luck!