In this paper, a simple novel control strategy is designed and analyzed for a hybrid energy storage system (HESS). In the proposed method, batteries are used to balance the slow changing power surges, whereas supercapacitors (SC) are used to balance the fast changing power surges. The main advantage of the proposed control strategy is that, the slow response of battery system including dynamics of battery, controller, and converter operation, is overcome by diverting the power surges to the SC system. The proposed method inherits charge/discharge rate control to improve the life span and reduce the current stresses on battery. The proposed method features less computational burden as it uses simple control strategy. The detailed experimental results presented validate the proposed control strategy for sudden changes in photovoltaic (PV) generation and load demand. © 2010-2012 IEEE.