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Frontiers in Energy

ISSN 2095-1701

ISSN 2095-1698(Online)

CN 11-6017/TK

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2018 Impact Factor: 1.701

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Front. Energy    2018, Vol. 12 Issue (4) : 560-568    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-018-0588-5
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Power to gas: addressing renewable curtailment by converting to hydrogen
Xiaohe YAN1(), Xin ZHANG2, Chenghong GU1, Furong LI1
1. Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
2. Electricity National Control Centre, National Grid, Wokingham, RG41 5BN, UK
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Abstract

Renewable energy is the key to meeting increasing electricity demand and the decarburization targets in the generation mix. However, due to constrained power network capacity, a large volume of renewable generation is curtailed particularly from wind power, which is a huge waste of resources. There are typically three approaches to addressing excessive renewable: direct curtailment, the reinforcement of networks to expand transfer capacity, and the conversion of excessive renewable into other energy types, such as hydrogen, to transport. The costs and benefits of the three approaches could vary significantly across location, time, and penetration of renewable energy. This paper conducts a cost-benefit analysis and comparison of the three techniques to address wind curtailment. It uses a reduced 16-busbar UK transmission network to analyze the performance of the three approaches. The UK 2020 generation mix is used to quantify the saved renewable energy and incurred costs. The payback time and net present value of the two investment techniques are compared. From demonstration, it is reasonable to conclude that converting excessive wind power into hydrogen to transport is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to address wind curtailment.
Keywords blending hydrogen      cost-benefit analysis      electrolysis      wind curtailment     
Corresponding Author(s): Xiaohe YAN   
Just Accepted Date: 14 August 2018   Online First Date: 25 September 2018    Issue Date: 21 December 2018
 Cite this article:   
Xiaohe YAN,Xin ZHANG,Chenghong GU, et al. Power to gas: addressing renewable curtailment by converting to hydrogen[J]. Front. Energy, 2018, 12(4): 560-568.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-018-0588-5
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2018/V12/I4/560
Fig.1  Scheme of the operating principle of an alkaline electrolysis cell
Fig.2  Typical wind turbine power output
Fig.3  Flowchart of the whole analysis process
Traditional power Nuclear Wind Other Gen max Load max
Bus1 0 — 3.00 0.90 0.38 0.32
Bus 2 1.64 — 3.9 — 1.67 0.32
Bus 3 — — — 0.25 0.10 0.05
Bus 4 — — — 0.23 0.17 0.33
Bus 5 1.30 — 2.25 0.44 0.01 0.69
Bus 6 0.34 1.20 2.25 0.03 2.82 1.84
Bus 7 6.14 1.20 2.31 — 0.32 1.96
Bus 8 — — — — — —
Bus 9 5.74 2.22 4.24 2.87 5.86 4.42
Bus10 9.40 — 2.00 — 4.32 3.50
Bus11 — — — — — —
Bus12 5.82 — 0.98 — 0.23 4.65
Bus13 5.68 — 4.50 — 0.30 0.44
Bus14 2.43 — 1.00 — 2.73 5.86
Bus15 9.04 — 1.50 — 3.39 7.11
Bus16 7.17 2.28 1.46 3.33 7.73 4.59
Sum 54.70 6.90 29.50 8.05 30.03 36.08
Tab.1  Expected UK generation capacity in 2020 (GW)
Fig.4  Reduced UK network
Fig.5  Wind speed in different buses
Specifications KPM-H2
Hydrogen output (HO)/(N?m3?h–1) 1000
Max. delivery pressure (HP)/MPa 1.6/3.2
Hydrogen purity/% 99–99.9998
Power consumption (Wpc)/(kWh?N–1?m−3) 4500
Electrical supply required/V 380/220
Tab.2  Data of a typical electrolyzer
Branches Power flow/MW Capacity/MW Length/km Overloading/MW
TB1 2669.8 1600 60 1069.8
TB2 5365.1 2800 100 2565.1
TB3 136.8 500 50 0
TB4 4873.7 3300 120 1573.7
TB5 6952.9 5150 35 1802.9
TB6 6407.0 5800 150 607.0
TB7 9658.2 7500 150 2158.2
TB8 6721.0 649 79 6072.0
TB9 274.1 3842 40 0
TB10 16221.2 10800 93 5421.2
TB11 91.1 3908 75 0
TB12 1478.4 5215 80 0
TB13 16752.8 11724 155 5028.8
TB14 2.4 3381 195 0
TB15 936.5 2590 60 0
Tab.3  Overloading level of transmission branches
Fig.6  Investment cost for different branches
Fig.7  Overloading and wind curtailment of the whole system
Technique Investment/(£bn) Profit/(£bn?a−1) NPV/(£bn) Payback time/a
Directly curtail wind 0 0 0 N/A
Network investment 10.6 2.45 41.5 73.5
Electrolysis investment 14.35 4.58 52.45 3.13
Tab.4  Analysis and comparison of results
Fig.8  Variation of NPV with different unit costs
Fig.9  Variation of NPV with technologies
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