Economic Assessment of Hydrogen Technologies Participating in California Electricity Markets

Abstract

As the electric sector evolves and increasing amounts of variable renewable generation are installed on the system, there are greater needs for system flexibility and sufficient capacity, and greater concern for overgeneration from renewable sources not well matched in time with electric loads. Hydrogen systems have the potential to support the grid in each of these areas. However, limited information is available about the economic competitiveness of hydrogen system configurations.

Optimizing unit capacities for a wind-hydrogen power system of clustered wind farms

“…In addition to gas to power (GtP), hydrogen can be marketed as a product for use in chemical industries and hydrogen vehicles. The whole system involves water electrolysis, including alkaline electrolysis, polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis, solid oxide electrolysis (SOEC), and hydrogen storage, which mainly uses compressed gas tanks, cryogenic compressed liquid hydrogen tanks, metal hydride storage, and fuel cells . A typical scheme of a wind‐hydrogen power system is presented in Figure .…”

California Power-to-Gas and Power-to-Hydrogen Near-Term Business Case Evaluation

“…While power-to-power represents a valuable configuration to provide long-duration storage (days+), because hydrogen can be stored in large underground reservoirs similar to natural gas, previous studies have shown economic challenges with power-to-power hydrogen storage systems (Eichman, 2016). Therefore, the focus of this report is on power-to-hydrogen (i.e., electricity to hydrogen that is sold as a vehicle fuel or industrial gas) and power-to-gas (i.e., electricity to hydrogen that is injected into the pipeline).…”

“…The mixed-integer program is coded in GAMS. This model has been used previously for hydrogen grid integration activities and is described in detail (Eichman, 2016). The model has also been used for exploring general energy storage valuation (Eichman, 2015).…”

“…See Table 5 for the cost assumptions. All cost and operational parameters are selected to represent near-term values, using the same process detailed in Eichman, Townsend, & Melaina, 2016. A model flowchart depicting the cost calculation process is shown below (Figure 7).…”

“…The authors recognize that there is weekly and seasonal variability in fuel demand, which can have an impact on the optimal sizing. This variability has been explored briefly in previous work (Eichman, 2016), and should be considered for future work.…”