Introduction

The research project HYRES aims at the development of an integrated system for monitoring and control of an electrical power system based on wind and PV energy for meeting the load demands.

Objectives and target audience

Project’s objectives:
a) to achieve the necessary know-how concerning the integration of systems that produce and store hydrogen – fuel cells in existing RES installations

Target audience:  All citizens of the European Union, but primarily people living in isolated/remote areas (e.g. islands, mountains etc)

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Funded by the Greek General Secretariat for Research and Technology, the project is industry-driven with the participation of CERTH/CPERI (Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, based in Thessaloniki, / Chemical Process Engineering Research Institute) in the development of the software models and control of the system.

Process

In the course of the project models of the integrated system were developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK.  An experimental set up was also developed and experimental results of the operation of the system were derived for various load and/or environmental conditions.

Results

The Automated Integrated Electrical Power System ensures  long-term storage of energy, which increases the energy autonomy of a system, and allows for the production system to be interconnected with other systems that use hydrogen.
The produced Hydrogen can also be used as raw material for other applications (e.g. in chemical industry) as well as a (future) fuel for vehicles.
The proposed system offers a significant contribution in creating a “hydrogen economy” (e.g. in remote areas the autonomous systems may be used for the production of electrical energy as well for the production of fuel for vehicles).

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

It was very difficult to find the industrial components, therefore they were all prototypes, which was a big challenge.  Also the integration of components had never been performed before.