Experimental assessment of hydrogen systems and vanadium-redox-flow-batteries for increasing the self-consumption of photovoltaic energy in buildings

This paper presents a detailed experimental assessment of an alkaline electrolyser, PEM-Fuel cell and Vanadium-Redox-Flow-Battery (VRFB) integrated into building automation system. The aim is to provide an experimental platform to develop operating strategies for building-integrated hybrid renewable energy systems. The first part of this study deals with the design of the test-facility followed by the introduction of the control structure and the implemented energy management strategy. The last part of the paper presents experimental results of the individual energy conversion systems and of the test-facility configured as a grid-connected hybrid storage system, with the control objective to maximise the self-consumption of electricity produced by photovoltaics. Furthermore, the dynamic performance of a hydrogen system (electrolyser and fuel cell) and a VRFB integrated into a building automation system is discussed in detail. The results obtained show that the performance is negatively influenced by the dynamic operation and how system integration aspects limit the capability of the energy storage systems to deal with high transient power variations.