Patent ID: 8329351

Claim:
A fuel cell system including: a fuel cell which generates a power by an electrochemical reaction between a fuel gas and an oxidizing gas; a capacitor in which the power generated by the fuel cell is charged; a motor driven by at least one of the generated power of the fuel cell and the power charged in the capacitor; an inverter to control the motor in a control system which switches on predetermined conditions; a converter which raises a voltage input from the capacitor to output the voltage to the motor through the inverter and which lowers a voltage input from the fuel cell to output the voltage to the capacitor; and a control unit programmed to control a converter command voltage and an inverter command voltage, wherein the control unit is programmed to perform high-potential avoiding control to keep the converter command voltage as a high-potential avoiding voltage which is lower than the open voltage of the fuel cell, thereby preventing the total voltage of the fuel cell from exceeding a predetermined high-potential avoiding voltage threshold value, and wherein the control unit is programmed to inhibit the high-potential avoiding control on conditions that the control system of the motor switches.