On the dynamics of a wind-hydrogen energy system undergoing a suitable operation planning

GARCÍA CLÚA, J.; MANTZ, R.; DE BATTISTA, H.

Campinas, Brasil

Workshop; 4º Workshop Internacional sobre Hidrogênio e Células a Combustível; 2008

UNICAMP

Hydrogen production from renewable energy sources represents a potential solution for sustainable development. However, there are still some barriers to a cost-competitive hydrogen economy. Among other open topics, there is a need for suitable controllers being capable of maximizing the wind energy extraction despite the primary resource variability and, at the same time, of accomplishing the electrolyzer specifications. Several operation strategies have been proposed to cope with these objectives. Nevertheless, the design of dynamic controllers to track a given strategy is a problem less treated in literature, though not less important. For the proper design of such controllers it is necessary to study the inherent properties of the system dynamics. In this context, this paper is devoted to investigate the dynamic behaviour of a wind-hydrogen energy system where the wind turbine is coupled to the electrolyzer through an electronic converter. Particular attention is given to the zero dynamics of the system because of their potential limitations to the operation strategy tracking. It is found that the zero dynamics exhibits interesting phenomena such as bifurcation of equilibria, which mainly appears because of the nonlinearity introduced by the aerodynamic torque.