Economic Dispatch method to quantify H2 impact on electricity generation in the Midwest region

Fighting climate change has been an increasingly important task worldwide. Since signing the legally binding Paris agreement, governments have been striving to fulfill the decarbonization mission. The United Sates, being one of the biggest greenhouse gas global emitters, has set a long-term strategy to reach Net-Zero Emissions by 2050. Moreover, there is a growing interest in using hydrogen (H2) as a long-duration energy storage resource for an electric grid dominated by renewable energy generation. In this work, we focus on the Midwest region of the United States, as potential key region to lead the energy transition pathway thanks to its outstanding wind and hydro resources. Here, we develop a generalized framework for the Midwest under a range of technology cost and carbon emission targets to ensure a long-term economic dispatch. Given operational and emission constraints, our model determines a combination of electricity generation outputs to meet the hourly demand at the lowest cost up to 2050. This study investigates the long-term grid decarbonization feasibility in the Midwest and quantifies the impact of H2, including electrolysis and steam methane reforming (SMR), on electricity generation. The simulation results show that H2 through SMR could be increasingly involved in electricity generation, while electrolytic H2 could have a major role to help with renewable energy intermittency.