Synergies between power and hydrogen carriers using fuel-cell hybrid electrical vehicle and power-to-gas storage as new coupling points

Abstract

The current focus on the variable renewable energy source integration and emission pollution concerns highlights the need for the reliable and efficient development of technology for the storage, generation, and distribution of renewable energy sources. The power-to-hydrogen and power-to-gas concepts significantly increase the share of variable renewable power in the power system. Using such technologies, hydrogen produced from the wind and solar energies can be stored, and once needed, it can be converted back into power or methane via the fuel-cell or the power-to-gas conversion, respectively. Besides these concepts, the most important aspect of the modern integrated energy system in the future is sector coupling, where several segments like energy and transportation operate together seamlessly to offer better services. Therefore, this paper works on the optimal operation of the integrated power and hydrogen networks, considering power-to-gas and fuel-cell electric vehicles as coupling points to maximize daily profit under the probabilistic model. Power-to-gas generates the hydrogen from solar and wind energies to provide a stable fuel station for fuel-cell electric vehicles, saved in tanks, and then once needed is converted back to power and methane and contributes to more economic benefits. The probabilistic approach based on the Monte-Carlo simulation is used to model wind and solar fluctuations. Key results show that coupling power-to-gas and fuel-cell electric vehicles increase daily profit by up to 25.32%, while wind and solar curtailment power has decreased by up to 36.4%.