Control of a PV-Electrolyzer-Fuel Cell Microgrid for the Provision of Grid Services in Distribution Systems

Stationary applications of hydrogen-based tech-nologies, such as electrolyzers and fuel cells, constitute new resources in the pathway towards energy transition. However, nowadays, normative and grid codes still lack technical specifications concerning the adoption of hydrogen technologies in power networks. On this regard, this paper proposes a monitoring and control architecture designed with the scope of advancing the practices in the exploitation of hydrogen-based flexible resources. In compliance with Italian grid code, the proposed controller is assumed to be adopted for the provision of grid services (e.g. active power limitation, reactive power regulation, etc.) by hybrid electric-hydrogen microgrids. The controller is programmed in the form of a finite-state machine and tested on the dynamic model of a grid-connected PV-electrolyzer-fuel cell DC microgrid. Tests results are aimed to assess how hydrogen-based technologies can be exploited for the provision of grid services and real-time grid regulation. The presented results demonstrate how hydrogen-based microgrids can be used to provide real-time active power control services to the system operators.