Fuel cell cars in a microgrid for synergies between hydrogen and electricity networks

Farid Alavi*, Esther Park Lee, Nathan van de Wouw, Bart De Schutter, Zofia Lukszo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

68 Citations (Scopus)
73 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Fuel cell electric vehicles convert chemical energy of hydrogen into electricity to power their motor. Since cars are used for transport only during a small part of the time, energy stored in the on-board hydrogen tanks of fuel cell vehicles can be used to provide power when cars are parked. In this paper, we present a community microgrid with photovoltaic systems, wind turbines, and fuel cell electric vehicles that are used to provide vehicle-to-grid power when renewable power generation is scarce. Excess renewable power generation is used to produce hydrogen, which is stored in a refilling station. A central control system is designed to operate the system in such a way that the operational costs are minimized. To this end, a hybrid model for the system is derived, in which both the characteristics of the fuel cell vehicles and their traveling schedules are considered. The operational costs of the system are formulated considering the presence of uncertainty in the prediction of the load and renewable energy generation. A robust min-max model predictive control scheme is developed and finally, a case study illustrates the performance of the designed system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)296-304
JournalApplied Energy
Volume192
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Energy management systems
  • Hybrid systems
  • Vehicle-to-grid

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Fuel cell cars in a microgrid for synergies between hydrogen and electricity networks'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this