In this paper, a nonlinear integral sliding mode control for a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) based stand-alone dc microgrid has been proposed and applied experimentally. This hybrid system comprises a PV, super-capacitor, and battery. A classical PI-based linear control strategy has been designed to control battery and super-capacitor systems based on decoupling the high and low-frequency components to estimate reference current. Since the frequent discharge during operation, supercapacitor power can reach the lowest value, affecting controller performance and making the system unstable. From the experimental result, a nonlinear Integral sliding mode control ISMC is performed as an inner loop controller to regulate battery and super-capacitor power. Also, the PI controller is implemented as an outer loop controller to regulate the dc-link. The proposed control approach is compared with the linear PI controller to improve life extension and minimize stress on the battery. As a result, the proposed control strategy has achieved high dynamic system performance.