Modeling fuel cells in integrated multi-energy systems

Abstract

This contribution investigates how different technology modeling methodologies affect the design of decentralized multi-energy systems, especially when fuel cell and energy storage are considered. First, thermoelectric models based on a first-principle approach are implemented to determine the performance and dynamic behavior of a set of conversion technologies. Then, as such nonlinear models are intractable within mixed-integer linear programming for the optimal design of multi-energy systems, simplified linear models suitable are developed. In particular, an affine and a piecewise affine approximations of the conversion efficiency are compared, and a linear description of the system dynamics is implemented. An optimization problem is formulated to investigate the impact of these modeling approximations on the design of integrated residential systems.