The role of hydrogen electrolysers in frequency related ancillary services: A case study in the Iberian Peninsula up to 2040

Abstract

This paper investigates the contribution of hydrogen electrolysers (HEs) for frequency related Ancillary Services (AS), namely Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR), Synthetic Inertia (SI) and Fast Frequency Response (FFR) in future operation scenarios in the Iberian Peninsula (IP) considering low system inertia. The proposed framework for analysis consists of a dynamic model developed in MATLAB/Simulink. Simulations show that an instantaneous inverter based resource (IBR) trip induced by a grid fault may lead to the occurrence of values of Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) close to undesirable thresholds if the FCR is provided solely by the conventional generators. The obtained results illustrate that HEs can outperform conventional generators on the provision of FCR. Furthermore, the FCR is unable to unlock the full potential of fast responding HEs. This suggests the advantage of providing additional AS such as SI or FFR in critical periods. Simulations also show that the benefit of additional AS can be limited in specific conditions, especially depending on the evolution of HEs’ ramping capabilities, but are still a relevant complement to other solutions designed to deal with low inertia in power systems such as synchronous compensators.