Build 100% renewable energy based power station and microgrid clusters through hydrogen-centric storage systems
Bei Li
Abstract
Hydrogen-based storage system can operate as the long-term storage, which will play an important role in future smart grids. In the hydrogen-based storage, the fuel cell, the hydrogen tanks, the electrolyzer, and the battery are included. In this paper, we try to build a 100% renewable energy based power station to supply energy to microgrid clusters (such as residential area, industrial area, smart buildings and so on) through the hydrogen-centric storage system. First, a rule-based strategy is built to operate the hydrogen-based storage system. Second, four microgrids and a power station model are presented. Third, genetic algorithm is adopted to find the best sizing value of each component. The simulation results showed that 1) hydrogen-based storage system has large energy density, which can achieve the goal to build a 100% renewable energy based power station; 2) the surplus renewable energy can be transferred into H2 through electrolyzer, which can be further used at any time; 3) when the installed renewable energy is limited, the stored H2 in hydrogen tanks should be high, in order to fulfill the load demands.