Local Energy Community to Support Hydrogen Production and Network Flexibility

Massimiliano Ferrara, Fabio Mottola, Daniela Proto (), Antonio Ricca and Maria Valenti
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Massimiliano Ferrara: Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Fabio Mottola: Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Daniela Proto: Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Antonio Ricca: Department of Energy Technologies and Renewable Energy Sources, ENEA-Italian National Agency for Energies, New Technologies and Sustainable Economic Development, Piazzale Enrico Fermi, 1, 80055 Portici, NA, Italy
Maria Valenti: Department of Energy Technologies and Renewable Energy Sources, ENEA-Italian National Agency for Energies, New Technologies and Sustainable Economic Development, Piazzale Enrico Fermi, 1, 80055 Portici, NA, Italy

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-20

Abstract: This paper deals with the optimal scheduling of the resources of a renewable energy community, whose coordination is aimed at providing flexibility services to the electrical distribution network. The available resources are renewable generation units, battery energy storage systems, dispatchable loads, and power-to-hydrogen systems. The main purposes behind the proposed strategy are enhancement of self-consumption and hydrogen production from local resources and the maximization of the economic benefits derived from both the selling of hydrogen and the subsidies given to the community for the shared energy. The proposed approach is formulated as an economic problem accounting for the perspectives of both community members and the distribution system operator. In more detail, a mixed-integer constrained non-linear optimization problem is formulated. Technical constraints related to the resources and the power flows in the electrical grid are considered. Numerical applications allow for verifying the effectiveness of the procedure. The results show that it is possible to increase self-consumption and the production of green hydrogen while providing flexibility services through the exploitation of community resources in terms of active and reactive power support. More specifically, the application of the proposed strategy to different case studies showed that daily revenues of up to EUR 1000 for each MW of renewable energy generation installed can be obtained. This value includes the benefit obtained thanks to the provision of flexibility services, which contribute about 58% of the total.

Keywords: demand response; flexibility services; hydrogen; power-to-hydrogen; renewable energy community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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