Dimensioning the Internal Components of a Hydrogen Storage Power Plant

Electrical power networks today are undergoing a transition towards integrating an ever increasing proportion of renewable energy sources. However, reducing the number of conventional fossil fuel based power plants introduces additional challenges in terms of grid stability. One of the solutions to this is to implement large-scale electrical energy storages in the grid, which not only provides the required ancillary services to ensure stability, but also compensates for the intermittent behaviour of renewable sources. Such a system is called the Hydrogen Storage Power Plant. In this paper, a futuristic scenario is highlighted, where a 500 MW coal power plant in the eastern German grid is replaced with a Hydrogen Storage Power Plant. The necessary storage elements inside it are dimensioned to provide the required frequency regulating. Next, for two study cases, the response of both types of power plants to disturbances in the network are compared. The results show that the storage power plants can ensure operation of the grid with the same reliability as coal power plants.