Power controller design for electrolysis systems with DC/DC interface supporting fast dynamic operation: A model-based and experimental study

The ability of the electrolysis system, powered by fluctuating and intermittent renewable sources, to rapidly and accurately track power signals is crucial for energy management in renewable power-to-hydrogen (ReP2H) plants and for providing grid frequency regulation as a virtual power plant (VPP). However, there is a considerable lag (several seconds or even more than 20 s) between the changes of the stack power compared with the stack current, mainly due to the existence of the electric double-layer (EDL) effect. This characteristic hinders the further application of electrolysis systems as flexible loads in power grids. By designing a suitable power controller in the power-electronics interface directly connected to the stack to replace the traditional current controller, it is expected to improve the fast dynamic response of the stack power. This paper proposes a unified electrical equivalent circuit for alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) systems and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis system with detailed parallel Buck type DC/DC interface, which considers the EDL effect and nonlinear behaviors of electrolysis systems and is suitable for controller design. A power controller design and robust parameter tuning method without excessive current overshoot based on frequency-domain analysis is proposed. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed model and method are verified by the experimental test on the 2 N m3/h(10 kW) AWE system and the 1 N m3/h(5 kW) PEM electrolysis system. With the proposed power controller, the AWE and PEM electrolysis system can change the stack power within 0.266s and 0.21s respectively, meeting the requirements of energy management and frequency regulation. Additionally, the temperature stability and the sensitivity of the proposed method to parameter fluctuations in the stack and DC/DC interface are analyzed.