Fuel cell and battery for guaranteed dispatch in power distribution systems

Abstract

The pursuit of decarbonization in the energy sector requires the
integration of clean conversion systems and efficient energy management strategies. This study presents a hybrid system composed of a fuel cell and a battery, focusing on load smoothing. The proposed approach employs a participation factor, α, to perform dynamic power allocation, aiming to supply the residual net demand variation over a constant base generation that meets the average load demand. Three storage capacity scenarios were analyzed: 0.1, 0.5, and 0.9 p.u., in which the strategy was validated through an search
inspired by satisfiability-based optimization algorithms. The results demonstrate that, under low storage capacities, the battery operates primarily in ramp-rate smoothing, whereas increasing the capacity to 0.9 p.u. enables the battery to absorb up to 56% of the load variability.