A sequential decision-making framework for integrating renewable energy communities and refueling stations in hydrogen production

Mohammad Reza Salehizadeh, Muhammed Ali Beyazıt, Akın Taşcıkaraoğlu and Jay Liu

Applied Energy, 2025, vol. 387, issue C, No S0306261925002776

Abstract: To meet the ever-increasing number of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs), establishing a sustainable method for hydrogen provision has become essential. In this context, the methodology presented in this paper proposes using excess power generated from residential rooftop photovoltaic (PV) panels to support refueling stations for green hydrogen production. To achieve this, we propose forming a set of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) to aggregate excess power. In return, the aggregated refueling stations provide energy credits to support households in the RECs during demand response (DR) periods, based on their contributions to hydrogen production support. Refueling stations are equipped with Community Energy Storage System (CESS) to store electrical energy and provide it back to RECs during DR periods. To implement this concept, a sequential decision-making procedure, including three optimization-based steps, is introduced. In Step 1, RECs determine the available excess power for hydrogen production and their power requirements during DR periods. In Step 2, a coordinator at the refueling station evaluates the electrical energy offered by RECs, approves the required amount, and determines the corresponding energy credits to be allocated to them. Finally, in Step 3, RECs sell any unapproved excess electrical energy to the grid and fairly allocate any lost load among households. The proposed methodology was tested through three case studies, including a Base Case in Austin, Texas, using a combination of real and additional approximated data. Results show that participating households achieved electrical energy cost reductions of up to 11.1%–28.7% depending on the test day. Furthermore, in the proposed case, leveraging stored energy from the CESS reduced electrical energy shortfalls during DR periods by 21.4%–66.4%. From the perspective of the refueling station coordinator, approximately 3.0%–4.7% of the hydrogen produced by the electrolyzers can be supplemented through REC contributions.

Keywords: Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV); Renewable Energy Community (REC); Sequential decision-making; Refueling station; Energy credit mechanism; Demand response; Community Energy Storage System (CESS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261925002776
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:387:y:2025:i:c:s0306261925002776

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125547

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().