Probabilistic hydrogen, thermal and electrical management of PEM-fuel cell power plants in distribution networks

This paper presents a Stochastic Multi-objective Optimal Operation Management (SMOOM) framework of distribution networks in presence of PEM-Fuel Cell Power Plants (FCPPs) and boilers. Operational costs, thermal recovery, power trade with grid and hydrogen management strategies are considered in this model. Furthermore, four objective functions has been considered as criteria for SMOOM, i.e. electrical energy losses, voltages deviations from their nominal values, total emissions emitted by CHP systems and grids, and total operational costs of CHP systems, as well as electrical energy cost of grids. A 2mþ 1 Point Estimated Method is used to cope with the uncertain variables i.e. electrical and thermal loads, gas price of FCPPs consumption, fuel cost of residential loads, purchasing and selling tariff of electricity, hydrogen price, operation temperature of fuel cell stack, and the pressures of hydrogen and oxygen of anode and cathode, respectively. A new multiobjective Modified Firefly Algorithm (MFA) is implemented for minimizing the objective functions while the operational constraints are satisfied. Finally, a 69-bus distribution network is utilized to examine the performance of the proposed strategy regarding the rest. Copyright a 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights