Hydrogen production in hybrid renewable energy system and power factor improvement

Abstract

A hybrid power generation system suitable for serving an off grid micro power system consisting of diesel generation, biogas, solar PV, wind turbine, micro-hydro plants and dc generator of fuel cell type is proposed in this work. The concept of hybridizing renewable energy sources help in augmenting expensive constantly run diesel generator in providing power. This work is based on the modeling, simulation, optimization and sensitivity analysis considering the net present cost, levelized cost of electricity, operating cost and performance of a renewable energy system having load of 20.6 kW under rural electricity supply. The hybrid optimization model for electric renewable (HOMER) software is used in the course of the study to design and optimize the proposed hybrid system. A solar PV-hydrogen system is used in which an electrolyzer converts excess PV power into hydrogen gas. The closed operating condition output of Hydrogen Tank is fed to a Fuel Cell, which intern output is connected to a busbar. The hydrogen gas obtained via electrolysis process is further used as sustainable onsite refueling. The proposed arrangement leads to dual way of producing electricity at a lower cost and also provides opportunity for future energy storage. Furthermore, the radial distribution network of the system is modeled in AMTECH software to improve the system power factor with a load factor of 0.476 in rural supply division. The reported load is used by the community, Al-Zahia-Musandam area of Oman.