Optimal control of a hybrid system of photovoltaic and fuel cell in residential use

In recent years, a photovoltaic solar energy system has widely spread on residential areas as an alternative energy of a fossil fuel. Since the output of photovoltaic (PV) cell sharply changes according to weather conditions, a certain power storage device is required to smooth the output and to meet electricity demand equivalent to a household load. Such devices are effective also a backup power at the time of a disaster like the Great East Japan Earthquake. A fuel cell (FC) is a promising candidate for long term energy system because hydrogen is supplied stably. We have so far proposed a hybrid system of PV and FC in residential use. The proposed system is consists of PV array, FC stack, electrolyzer (EL), hydrogen storage tank, and power conversion devices. This paper deals with a mixed integer programming problem for determining the amount of hydrogen flow and hydrogen remaining amount in the storage tank. We verify the effectiveness of the proposed method through numerical simulations.