A Coordinated Control Method for Integrated System of Wind Farm and Hydrogen Production: Kinetic Energy and Virtual Discharge Controls

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel coordinated control method of wind farms (WFs) and hydrogen production systems (HPSs). In a grid-connected system where the WF and the HPS are connected to the grid, the WF can supply the power to the grid, producing hydrogen in the HPS. Moreover, the output fluctuation of the WF can be mitigated when the HPS produces hydrogen from the output surplus. The purpose of the grid-connected system is to smooth the WF output fluctuation sufficiently, produce hydrogen constantly, and maintain a high capacity factor in the HPS. The proposed coordinated control achieves the mitigation of the WF output and the high capacity factor in the HPS. The key ideas are 1) utilizing the kinetic energy of wind generators and 2) virtual discharge of the HPS. The fluctuation components of the WF output are compensated by both the WF and the HPS. The proposed coordinated controller enables us to produce hydrogen constantly in the HPS with a low-rated power. The advantage of the proposed coordinated control is verified by a comparative analysis with conventional methods through simulations using real wind data.

Keywords

• Electrolyzer
• output smoothing
• hydrogen production
• wind generation