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Focused on “overworked and ageing” grids, which are still dominated by fossil fuels in some countries, the work was carried out at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
The team proposed using idle hydrogen vehicles as “mobile generators” after analysing demand on Alberta’s power grid during rush hour.
“Canada’s power grids need to be upgraded,” said lead researcher Dr XiaoYu Wu. “The price of Alberta’s power grid is much higher than other provinces. Most power is supplied by fossil fuels, which results in high carbon emissions.
“The need to rapidly adjust generators to meet fluctuating demand is one of the reasons that the grid price is unstable and volatile. This creates the potential for clean energy storage to flatten the demand and price of electricity.”
The research built on ‘vehicle-to-grid’ technology, which uses special chargers to send unused energy from electric vehicle (EV) batteries back to the power grid. Using EV batteries as extra storage can support the grid during weather-related outages or reduce demand during peak periods.
The team proposed paying drivers of fuel cell-powered trucks to park during rush hour and plug into a refuelling station or pipeline, using their trucks’ fuel cells as generators to provide electricity to the grid.
The system could reduce traffic on the roads, cut energy use at peak times, and provide a cleaner way to store energy, the researchers said.
Graduate student Daniel Ding developed a mathematical model to simulate the operation, then used software to analyse and model its potential for balancing the grid load and decreasing the peak price and carbon intensity.
“Hydrogen fuel cells offer advantages over other fuels like batteries, which require more investment and pollute more when you dispose of them,” Ding said.
The energy storage solution could have applications beyond trucks. Heavy duty vehicles and trains – such as switcher locomotives, which are typically idle until they are needed to change train routes – could also be early adopters.
“With the increasing demand to decarbonise heavy duty vehicles, the fuel cell EV fleet is expected to expand rapidly,” said Dr Wu.
“Connecting these trucks to the grid for the peak-shifting purpose may provide economic incentives for adopting hydrogen fuel cell EVs and help facilitate the emergence of a large-scale hydrogen economy.”
The researchers plan to test their preliminary findings in the laboratory and in the field to determine its applicability.
The work was supported by the Transition Accelerator, Mitacs and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). It was published in 2023 IEEE 11th International Conference on Smart Energy Grid Engineering (SEGE).
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