Energy Management Strategies in hydrogen Smart-Grids: A laboratory experience

•A new labscale hydrogen microgrid laboratory is presented.•Characterization of static and dynamic behavior is provided.•Hysteresis band and model predictive control are implemented.•Recommendations are made based on lab experience.

As microgrids gain reputation, nations are making decisions towards a new energetic paradigm where the centralized model is being abandoned in favor of a more sophisticated, reliable, environmentally friendly and decentralized one.The implementation of such sophisticated systems drive to find out new control techniques that make the system “smart”, bringing the Smart-Grid concept. This paper studies the role of Energy Management Strategies (EMSs) in hydrogen microgrids, covering both theoretical and experimental sides. It first describes the commissioning of a new labscale microgrid system to analyze a set of different EMS performance in real-life. This is followed by a summary of the approach used towards obtaining dynamic models to study and refine the different controllers implemented within this work. Then the implementation and validation of the developed EMSs using the new labscale microgrid are discussed. Experimental results are shown comparing the response of simple strategies (hysteresis band) against complex on-line optimization techniques, such as the Model Predictive Control. The difference between both approaches is extensively discussed. Results evidence how different control techniques can greatly influence the plant performance and finally we provide a set of guidelines for designing and operating Smart Grids.