Modeling of a hybrid marine current-hydrogen active power generation system

Abstract

This paper presents the modeling and the simulation of a hybrid marine current-hydrogen power generation system. The marine current power generation system consists of a fixed pitch marine current turbine directly coupled to a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). The generator is connected to a DC link capacitor via a controlled rectifier, which has two modes of operation. The first mode is the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) by using torque control when the generator runs below the rated speed. The second mode is the power limitation (at the rated value) when the generator runs above the nominal speed. The generated power is transferred from the DC-link to the load via an inverter to run the system in a stand-alone operation mode. An energy storage system must cover the difference between the generation and the consumption for this scheme. The hydrogen, compared with the different energy storage systems, exhibits characteristics more applicable for marine current power generation systems. When the generated power is higher than the load requirements, a Megawatt-scale proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer consumes the surplus energy for hydrogen generation. The generated hydrogen is stored in tanks to feed a PEM fuel cell system to generate power in case of shortage. Based on this topology and operation procedure, the overall system is called an active power generation system. The MW scale PEM electrolyzer model is presented based on state of the art and the literature of different scales PEM electrolyzer system modeling.