Volume 3: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part II

Does the Inclusion of a Hydrogen-Based Energy System Improve the Robustness of the Levelized Cost of Electricity for an Urban, Grid-Connected Household? Diederik Coppitters, Ward De Paepe, Francesco Contino

Abstract

Hydrogen-based energy systems are a viable solution to perform long-term storage of excess intermittent renewable energy. However, such systems are rarely considered in energy system optimization. Moreover, whenever these technologies are considered, the model parameters are considered known and fixed, which can result in suboptimal designs, sensitive to uncertainty. To evaluate the inclusion of a hydrogen-based system in a global energy system and to address the uncertainty on its techno-economic performance, we performed an optimization under uncertainty of a solar-powered, grid-connected household, supported by batteries and hydrogen storage. This paper illustrates the effect of the hydrogen-based energy system on the uncertainty of the predicted levelized cost of electricity. The inclusion of the hydrogen system decreases the standard deviation of the levelized cost of electricity by 4.3 €/MWh (13%) at the expense of an increase in mean levelized cost of electricity by 100 €/MWh (28%). Consequently, despite the gain in robustness, including a hydrogen-based storage system in the considered urban area is not beneficial overall. Future works will focus on including remote areas, to fully exploit the gain in robustness induced by hydrogen-based storage systems.

Keywords hydrogen-based energy system, levelized cost of electricity, uncertainty, robust design optimization