Towards Low-carbon Power Networks: Optimal Integration of Renewable Energy Sources and Hydrogen Storage

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive optimization framework for strategically locating and sizing renewable energy sources and hydrogen storage in power networks, considering uncertainties and the AC power flow, to reduce operational costs.

Contribution

It is the first to systematically integrate AC OPF with renewable and hydrogen storage planning, providing globally optimal solutions for low-carbon power networks.

Findings

Joint integration reduces operational costs.

AC OPF consideration improves decision accuracy.

Insights depend on hydrogen prices and emission policies.

Abstract

This paper proposes a new optimization model and solution method for determining optimal locations and sizing of renewable energy sources and hydrogen storage in a power network. We obtain these strategic decisions based on the multi-period alternating current optimal power (AC OPF) flow problem that considers the uncertainty of renewable output, electricity demand, and electricity prices. We develop a second-order cone programming approach within a Benders decomposition framework to provide globally optimal solutions. To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first to propose a systematic optimization framework based on AC OPF that jointly analyzes power network, renewable, and hydrogen storage interactions in order to provide optimal locations and sizing decisions of renewables and hydrogen storage. In a test case, we show that the joint integration of renewable sources and hydrogen storage and consideration of the AC OPF model significantly reduces the operational cost of the power network. In turn, our findings can provide quantitative insights to decision-makers on how to integrate renewable sources and hydrogen storage under different settings of the hydrogen selling price, renewable curtailment costs, emission tax prices, and conversion efficiency.