Optimal Siting and Sizing of Hydrogen Energy Storage in Alpine Regions

The alpine regions are characterized by low temperatures and abundant sunlight, such as Northwest China, most forms of energy storage (ES) are not suitable, like electrochemical ES. This paper proposes a method for optimal siting and sizing of hydrogen energy storage (HES) considering the spatio-temporal energy arbitrage and promoting solar energy consumption. Firstly, build a framework for the hydrogen-electricity coupling system (HECS), to meet the demand for PV-friendly grid connection and develop the hydrogen sales industry chain to increase system revenue. Then the siting and sizing model of HES is established to realize the minimal operating and investment costs. Finally, based on the data from northwest China, the numerical simulation is conducted to demonstrate the validity of the proposed HECS framework and optimization method. The results bespeak that the approach reduces the annual cost by 14.96% and 2.69% respectively compared to the cases without optimization.