Applications of one-cycle control to improve the interconnection of a solid oxide fuel cell and electric power system with a dynamic load

Abstract

Adding distributed generation (DG) is a desirable strategy for providing highly efficient and environmentally benign services for electric power, heating, and cooling. The interface between a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), typical loads, and the electrical grid is simulated in Matlab/Simulink and analyzed to assess the interactions between DG and the electrical grid. A commercial building load profile is measured during both steady-state and transient conditions. The load data are combined with the following models that are designed to account for physical features: a One-Cycle Control grid-connected inverter, a One-Cycle Control active power filter, an SOFC, and capacitor storage. High penetration of DG without any power filter increases the percentage of undesirable harmonics provided by the grid, but combined use of an inverter and active power filter allows the DG system interconnection to improve the grid tie-line flow by lowering total harmonic distortion and increasing the power factor to unity.

Load-following active power filter for a solid oxide fuel cell supported load

“…The description of the development and experimental verification of the OCC inverter is shown in [7], and the development, verification and application of the inverter model is described fully in [5,8,9]. The OCC APF design is originally developed and verified experimentally in [4,10,11], and the APF model is introduced in [6].…”

“…The OCC APF design is originally developed and verified experimentally in [4,10,11], and the APF model is introduced in [6]. The OCC APF model uses the switching flow-graph method from [12], and is also incorporated with an inverter, SOFC, and load in [5]. The schematic of the power stage of the APF and the switching flow-graph model of the APF control are both presented in Fig.…”

“…to the grid interconnection of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has been shown to allow the SOFC and inverter to supply grid-connected real power without perturbing the utility system by locally compensating for the harmonics and reactive power associated with practical building loads [5]. Thus, the APF provides benefits for power quality in the steady-state, but this does not guarantee that it will be effective for eliminating voltage sags or other transient-based power quality issues.…”

Dynamic performance of an in-rack proton exchange membrane fuel cell battery system to power servers

“…Fuel starvation in the anode compartment can occur if the fuel is consumed by the electrochemical reactions faster than it can be supplied by the fuel delivery system and/or diffused through the electrodes to the electrochemically active sites. Hydrogen is sustained in the anode compartment by controlling the fuel flow rate in proportion to the amount of consumed hydrogen and a desired fuel utilization [12,13]. Other operating conditions such as feed gas humidity, operation temperature, feed gas stoichiometry, air pressure, fuel cell size and gas flow geometry were also found to affect the dynamic response capabilities of PEMFC [14e17].…”

Fuel cell systems and traditional technologies. Part II: Experimental study on dynamic behavior of PEMFC in stationary power generation

“…A noteworthy study has been performed by Auld et al [10], who modeled a SOFCbased power system to satisfy the dynamic load of a commercial building, facing both steady state and transient conditions. Chaisantikulwat et al [11] have extensively discussed dynamic responses of SOFC systems, proposing a complete model to determine electric performance from classic thermodynamic relations.…”