Optimal scheduling and real-time control of a microgrid with an electrolyzer and a fuel cell systems using a reference governor approach

This paper proposes a novel approach for the optimal scheduling and control of a microgrid with an electrolyzer and fuel cell systems, both of proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology. It is based on a hierarchical procedure constituted of two levels of optimization: a higher level based on an economic optimization for the optimal scheduling of different components of the microgrid, and a lower level for the real-time control of the hydrogen systems: PEM electrolyzer (PEMEZ) and PEM fuel cell (PEMFC). The flexible operation imposed by the higher level leads to a violation of the limits designed by the manufacturer of the hydrogen components, specifically when switching from one power level to another. The current proportional-integral (PI) controllers integrated into those systems cannot handle this issue, which provokes a premature aging phenomenon of the materials and leads to poor performance of the systems. In the present paper, at the lower level, a reference governor (RG) real-time control approach has been added on top of the PI controller to ensure the respect of the operating limits and guarantee better performances. The focus has been given to the stack's temperature in both the electrolyzer and fuel cell systems as the control objective because of its direct influence on the material's durability and, by extension, on the efficiency. The bi-level optimization and control architecture has been applied and validated through simulations using data from a real-world case study, specifically the Savona Campus Smart Polygeneration Microgrid in Italy. The results showed a significant reduction in the overshoots of the stack's temperature compared to the PI controller.