Abstract:
In hydrogen production bases, the coordinated control of multiple parallel alkaline water electrolyzers (AWEs) to jointly participate in the regulation of renewable energy is a major trend in the future. However, renewable energy sources that fluctuate over time can have an impact on the temperatures of alkaline water electrolyzers, which in turn leads to changes in their rated power. In such a situation, if the droop controller with a constant droop coefficient is continuously used, it may result in an unreasonable power distribution among alkaline water electrolyzers. This issue has seldom been considered in the existing literature. To fill this gap, this paper proposes an adaptive power coordination control method for the hydrogen production system with multiple parallel alkaline water electrolyzers. Firstly, an equivalent circuit model of alkaline water electrolyzers is established, and the maximum current-temperature curve is plotted. On this basis, a temperature-driven droop control strategy is proposed. The control system will periodically update the model of alkaline water electrolyzers and calculate the droop coefficient in real time by combining with their temperatures. Then, the impact of the proposed control strategy on the thermodynamic characteristics of alkaline water electrolyzers is analyzed. Finally, the proposed control strategy is verified on the built electrolytic hydrogen production experimental platform. The experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve a reasonable power distribution among different alkaline water electrolyzers.