The Role of Hydrogen Electrolysers in the Frequency Containment Reserve: A Case Study in the Iberian Peninsula up to 2040

Abstract

This paper investigates the contribution of hydrogen electrolysers (HEs) as highly controllable loads in the context of the Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR), in future operation scenarios on the Iberian Peninsula (IP). The research question is whether HEs can mitigate system insecurity regarding frequency or Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) in critical periods of high renewable energy penetration (i.e. low system inertia), due to the fact that these periods will coincide with high volume of green hydrogen production. The proposed simulation platform for analysis consists of a simplified dynamic model developed in MATLAB/Simulink. The results obtained illustrate how HEs can outperform conventional generators on the provision of FCR. It is seen that the reference incident of 1GW loss in the IP in a 2040 low inertia scenario does not lead to insecure values of either frequency or Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF). On the other hand, an instantaneous loss of inverter-based resources (IBR) generation following a short-circuit may result in RoCoF violating security thresholds. The obtained results suggest that the HEs expected to be installed in the IP in 2040 may contribute to reduce RoCoF in this case, although this mitigation may be insufficient. The existing FCR mechanism does not fully exploit the fast-ramping capability of HEs; reducing measurement acquisiton delay would not improve results.