Fuel cell preventive maintenance in an electricity market with Hydrogen storage and Scenario-Based risk management

Abstract

The application of the fuel cell (FC) in improving the clean and energy-efficient cogeneration of heat and power has been broadly justified by researchers. However, the reliable operation of FC units requires periodic maintenance services. In this regard, preventive generation maintenance scheduling (GMS) notably preserves the units’ lifespan, prevents unexpected failures, and restricts imposed repair costs caused by failures. The present work models the GMS problem for FC and highlights its challenges compared to the GMS of conventional generation units. The main challenges, including simultaneous satisfaction of the power-heat dual dependency in FC, the power and heat demand balances, and maintenance considerations, including duration, continuity, and coordination of maintenance, are addressed in this research. The maintenance program is first planned for a year to optimize the maintenance timetable. Afterward, daily generation scheduling is optimized subject to the GMS program obtained for the studied year. Moreover, by using risk management, the economic risk associated with the problem (due to uncertainty in the electricity price) is handled. The obtained results for the impacts of risk management on FC’s maintenance schedule depict an 11.5% improvement in the cost of the worst-case scenarios, namely a cost reduction from M$111.4 to M$98.6.