Elsevier

Applied Energy

Volume 192, 15 April 2017, Pages 296-304
Applied Energy

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

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.10.084Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • A novel concept of a flexible energy system that uses fuel cell cars as dispatchable power plants.

  • Synergies between hydrogen and electricity networks by operating of fuel cell cars in a microgrid.

  • A robust min-max model predictive control scheme for optimal dispatch of the fuel cell cars.

  • A novel model predictive control scheme to govern the system operation.

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.

Keywords

Energy management systems
Vehicle-to-grid
Hybrid systems

Cited by (0)

1

Nathan van de Wouw is also with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, and the Department of Civil, Environmental & Geo-Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.