This paper proposes a method that distributes the load power and stores the regenerated energy for a hoist-load system using the supercapacitor, an energy storage device. The crane, which is a representative hoist-load system, operates in two modes. The first is the hoist-up mode in which the load container is lifted up: the maximum power is required at the end of acceleration. The second is the hoist-down mode in which the load container is lifted down; the regenerated energy is wasted by the resistor In this paper, the supercapacitor stores the regenerated energy in the hoist-down operation and supplies the peak power demand in the hoist-up operation. The same structure as the commercially available three-phase inverter is proposed as a bidirectional do-dc converter to charge and discharge the supercapacitor. A power control algorithm is proposed to optimize the load sharing between the generator and the supercapacitor. Using the proposed method, it is effected that the generator size can be cut down to one third of the original one; it leads to the reduction of the fuel consumption, noise and air pollution. Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the Proposed method.