Implementation and control of electrolysers to achieve high penetrations of renewable power

The mass deployment of electrolysers, within a power system serving a region of high wind resource, as the enabling mechanism for achieving five key objectives is assessed (that is: a very high installed capacity of wind power plant (WPP); zero wind curtailment during times of low demand; a very high load factor for thermal power plant; an electricity supply of low-carbon intensity; and a hydrogen supply of low-carbon intensity). Three electrolyser implementation cases were simulated for three days characterised mainly by wind availability and emphasis was placed on maximizing the smoothness of the load profile (LF) applied to thermal power plant. If zero-carbon hydrogen is to be produced a daily load factor for thermal power plant of 90% is the upper limit, but load factors of up to 100% are achievable if a carbon intensity of 3kgCO2/kgH2 is permitted. For wind penetrations exceeding approximately 30% of system maximum demand, the electrolyser stock must include implementations close to WPP if curtailment is to be avoided. To achieve very high wind penetrations and very high load factors for thermal power plant requires a large stock of electrolysers—for the system investigated approximately 1.1 MW of electrolyser capacity is required per installed MW of wind power.