Energetic analyses of installing SOFC co-generation systems with EV charging equipment in Japanese cafeteria

Energetic feasibility analyses were conducted when an SOFC CGS with EV charging equipment is installed in a facility with a high hot-water demand and a high thermo-electric demand ratio. The university cafeteria located on the Hitachi Campus of Ibaraki University in Japan was selected as an installation target because its electric and hot-water demands fulfilled the intended criterion of a high thermo-electric demand ratio. It was made clear that the merits of a co-generation system are not optimal in the case a gas water heater is selected as the backup hot-water supply. To solve the problems contributing to this bad result and to improve the performance, the authors next selected a heat pump water heater as the backup hot-water supply. It was made clear that this system possesses sufficiently high energy savings performance. It was also shown that the coexistence and co-prosperity of the cafeteria and EV charging equipment are successfully achieved. These results reveal that an SOFC CGS with EV charging equipment can be a feasible candidate for a future energy supply system installed in Japanese cafeteria, which is a facility with a large hot-water demand and a high thermo-electric demand ratio, by adopting a heat pump water heater, instead of the usual gas water heater, as the backup hot-water supply.