Research

Coordinated operation of hydrogen refuelling and fast charging combo station under normal and contingent conditions

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Abstract

Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are rapidly growing owing to the increased publicawareness of energy and environmental issues. Infrastructure for hydrogen production,transportation, and allocation is essential for FCEV promotion. For consumers, availabil-ity of few hydrogen refuelling stations is the primary concern. Cur rently, public charginginfrastructure for battery electric vehicles, for example, fast charging station, has a morewidespread coverage compared to infrastructure for hydrogen refuelling. With an elec-trolyser, the existing power grid can be used as an alternative to hydrogen supply andtransportation infrastructure, which is still being developed. The authors propose a newconceptual combo station acting as both a hydrogen refuelling station and a fast chargingstation. This station can satisfy the requirement of FCEVs and battery electric vehicles, andeven operate under a blackout situation. To quantify the value of coordinated operation,an optimal operation formulation of a combo station is developed. It is found that such acombo station is capable of saving land rents, reducing power network reinforcement cost,and boosting energy self-balance capability under blackout condition.