AlphaHydrogen: A virtual platform for simulating and evaluating station-based regional hydrogen-electricity networks with distributed renewables, buildings, and fuel-cell vehicles

Abstract

Building-transportation integrated regional energy networks powered by hydrogen (H2) and electricity has attracted increasing research attention due to its capability to address the urgent challenge of climate change. However, modeling and optimizing H2-electricity networks are difficult due to the inter-disciplinary nature and the lack of convenient and compatible simulation approaches. In this study, an innovative open-sourced virtual platform, AlphaHydrogen, is developed for fast, accurate, and convenient simulation of regional H2-electricity networks constituted by distributed renewable generation, buildings, fuel-cell vehicles, and a H2 station. We first introduced the development of AlphaHydrogen. Then, we demonstrated how to use AlphaHydrogen to simulate a microgrid with 30 houses, rooftop photovoltaic panels, 30 fuel-cell vehicles, and a H2 station with an electrolyzer, an H2 tank, and an onsite fuel cell. We compared the simulation accuracy of AlphaHydrogen with a widely used commercial-licensed software (TRNSYS), and then demonstrated how AlphaHydrogen can be used to optimize the design and operation of a complicated microgrid energy system. Our numerical validation indicates that the simulation differences between AlphaHydrogen and TRNSYS are smaller than 5% in terms of annual energy amounts and grid powers. The optimal sizing of on-site renewable generation and the most suitable rule-based control strategy for the above microgrid system have been discussed using AlphaHydrogen. We believe AlphaHydrogen can promote the application and optimization of H2-electricity hybrid energy system by providing an accurate, open-sourced, compatible, extensible, and easy-to-use virtual testbed.