Qualifying tests and economic analysis of

electrolysers for grid services

Regine Reissner 1, Jörg Bürkle 1, Stephanie Crevon 2, Valerie Seguin 2, Valerian Clemenz 3,
Tanaka Mbavarira3, Christoph Imboden 3

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 Rationale

• Strong market entry of electrolysers today still limited by

costs
• Performing electricity grid services → possibly improved
revenues for electrolysers
• Approved and standardised electrolysers tests to verify
which service an electrolyser can perform → help OEMs
and customers
 Electricity Grid Services Europe
• TSO use grid services for balancing production and consumption
Production Consumption

• Increase/decrease electricity production or consumption on request

• Differentiation of services mostly by time for activation

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FCR FRR RR
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 Testing protocols to investigate
grid service ability
• Variations in grid service requirements and
prequalifications of European countries
harmonized

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All protocols download DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3912063
 Grid service performance of PEM
electrolysers

50 kW
Hydrogenics/DLR
1 MW
Stuttgart
Hydrogenics/Uniper
Hamburg

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 Test results PEM

Stack power (per unit)

1MW

50 kW

1 MW system System Stack

Hydrogenics/Uniper power power
Hamburg Reitbrook
Duration ramps up tm 10 sec 10 sec
Findings:
Duration ramps up t full 18 sec 18 sec
• Systems should have power control
Duration ramps down tm 7 sec 7 sec
• With some feasible adaptations in control and
Duration ramps down t 11 sec 11 sec
communication system PEMWE are able to perform
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full
grid services
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 Technoeconomic evaluation
• Comprehensive grid services catalogue at European level
• Identification of grid services opened to loads (data base 2016 market data)
• Comparison of grid services remuneration in European countries (data base 2016 market data)

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 Impact of grid services on
business models
• In today’s situation, providing grid services is a secondary value stream for WE.

• Main possible revenue streams :

• For WE, the priority is to supply the recurring H load to serve these markets.

 If WE are participating in grid services, they will need :

• An 𝐻 storage (to secure load supply)
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• An advanced control management system
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 Impact on H2 cost
• One of the studied business cases

Germany, 2017, FCR and aFRR

Potential interest for grid

service

Our analysis remains

LCOH= theoretical
Levelized It will depend on the capability
cost of of the operator to place
hydrogen interesting bids.
Additionnal costs to
participate in grid services
(such as aggregator‘s cost)
have to be considered.
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 Towards Standardisation
• Standardisation: QualyGridS testing protocols as basis for ISO Technical
Report
• DLR Regine Reissner Convenor, CEA Cyril Bourasseau
• Contacts to working groups IEC/TC8 (System Aspects of electrical energy
supply), IEC/TC105 (Fuel Cell Technologies), IEC/TC120 (Electrical Energy
Storage Systems)
• Foreseen Finalisation September 2022

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Next step:
Testing protocols for large size electrolyzer
GreenH2Atlantic
A 100 MW flexible green hydrogen production process
sourcing hybrid renewable energy and supplying
green hydrogen to multiple end-uses
Call European Green Deal 100 MW
December 2021 – November 2027
Total budget 150 M€, total funding 30 M€
• A scalable 100 MW ALK electrolyser platform
• Demonstrate CapEx reduction, improvement in efficiency, BoP, lifetime, current
density and flexibility
• Flexible green hydrogen production directly coupling renewables with the
electrolyser
• Target LCOH < 3 EUR/kg
• Novel, pressurized large scale ALK electrolyser modules
• Supplying H2 to multiple use-cases
• AI-enhanced Hydrogen Management System (AHyMS)
Application of Grid service testing protocols

• Update and collection of new information about new grid services

• Protocols are applied to 16 MW alkaline electrolyzer modules during
development phase
• Protocols are applied to 100 MW electrolyzer plant
• Update of protocols
• Evaluation of grid services as part of business model for electrolyzer
 Summary
• PEM and alkaline water electrolysers can perform electricity
grid services
• Standardizing requirements and tests will avoid individual
design of each electrolyser and reduce costs
• Potential hydrogen cost reduction when participating in grid
services but grid services remain a secondary revenue stream
for WE
• More European harmonisation of grid services technical
requirements and markets needed + updated databases
• Need for strong WE CAPEX reduction and market incentives
• Large scale demonstration on the way 13

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This project has receivedfundingfrom the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen2 www.qualygrids.eu This work is supported by the Swiss
Joint Undertaking undergrant agreement No 735485.This Joint State Secretariatfor Education,
Undertaking receivessupport from the EuropeanUnion’s Horizon 2020 Researchand Innovation(SERI)
researchand innovation programme and HydrogenEuropeand N.ERGHY under contract number 17.00009.

Thank you
Contact details
Regine Reissner
[email protected]
+49 711 6862 394

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 More details
All testing protocols for download DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3912063
1 MW system pictures, data from:
Haubner, Bastian und Föcker, Helge und Bayer, Armin und Pitschak, Bernd und Gago, Aldo und Lettenmeier, Philipp und
Voglstätter, Christopher und Smolinka, Tom (2017) Wie kommen Wind und Sonne ins Gasnetz? Pilotprojekt zur elektrolytischen
Wasserstofferzeugung erfolgreich abgeschlossen. DVGW energie | wasser-praxis, Seiten 12-16. wvgw Wirtschafts- und
Verlagsgesellschaft Gas und Wasser mbH. ISSN 1436-6134; https://elib.dlr.de/112792/1/ewp_0317_12-16_Foecker.pdf
WESpe - Wissenschaftliche Forschung zu Windwasserstoff-Energiespeichern, Teilprojekt DLR : Endbericht. P. Lettenmeier, A.
Gago, K.A. Friedrich; https://doi.org/10.2314/GBV:1029363986;
https://www.tib.eu/de/suchen?tx_tibsearch_search%5Baction%5D=download&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bcontroller%5D=Downloa
d&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bdocid%5D=TIBKAT%3A1029363986&cHash=065f43c8ab781af83b378b5e64cddeba#download-
mark
“Kompaktes 1 MW-PEM-Wasserelektrolyse-System –
Regenerativer Wasserstoff für Mobilität und Energiespeicherung (KompElSys)“ Abschlussbericht, P. Lettenmeier, T. Smolinka, B.
Pitschak, A. Bayer, R. Schoof, September 2016 https://doi.org/10.2314/GBV:881196096;
https://www.tib.eu/de/suchen?tx_tibsearch_search%5Baction%5D=download&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bcontroller%5D=Downloa
d&tx_tibsearch_search%5Bdocid%5D=TIBKAT%3A881196096&cHash=856c25636ab78919422c3f182414a584#download-mark
Test results in https://DOI.org/10.51/zenodo.3999607 and doi: 10.1093/ce/zkaa015
Techno-economic evaluation: V. Klemenz, T. M. Mbavarira, C. Imboden in https://zenodo.org/record/3355399; and 15
S. Crevon, V. Seguin in GSM2020Proceedings DOI 10.5281/Zenodo.4284325
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