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I am part of a team working on a 15MW electrolyser project comprising six 2.5MW containerized electrolysers. This setup will be positioned near a 20MW wind farm, and there is also the potential for us to import an additional 5MW from the local distribution grid. The specs on the electrolyser mention a rectifier, then I assume that the electricity input comes in AC form. We have already made the decision to power four of the six electrolyser containers directly from the wind farm.

However, we are in the early stages of this project, and the detailed engineering is still to be finalized. I don't yet have the complete technical specifications for the rectifier. Given this context, my questions revolve around the power source for the remaining two electrolyser containers (equivalent to 5MW).

  1. Is it technically possible to power the electrolyser at its full-rated input from either the electrical grid, the wind farm, or a combination of both at any moment? I have seen suggestions that managing a dual-source AC input might present complexities. This would be useful so we can operate 5 MW of electrolyser as a baseload.

  2. If such a configuration proves feasible, could we arrange the system to prioritize power supply from the wind farm to the electrolyser?

We are still in the process of discussing these high-level concepts, but we would appreciate any insight or experience you might share about the feasibility of such a setup.

JYelton
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Ricardo
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  • Is the goal to have the electrolyzers constantly running, with wind power (variable) contributing as much as possible? – rdtsc Aug 02 '23 at 11:50
  • Indeed, but also ensuring a base load hydrogen output (of 5 MWe). Having the optionality to run two electrolyzers with a wind/grid (at any given time) mix would also allow us to use more wind compared to only using the grid in those containers. I am not sure if it's possible to have two AC inputs that can complement each other.. or if is either at any given time. – Ricardo Aug 03 '23 at 16:47

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I know nothing about electrolysers ...

My first question is whether or not your windfarm will generate without synchronisation to the distribution grid. Many won't.

  • If it doesn't then the solution is fairly simple: synchronise with the grid and adjust the electrolysers' consumption to match the wind generation.
  • If it does then you could consider changeover switches to switch between mains and wind in a step sequence. With six containers you could have six steps or load levels.
Transistor
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