A Hydrogen-Based Integrated Energy and Transport System: The Design and Analysis of the Car as Power Plant Concept

In this article, we presented a hydrogen -based integrated energy and transport system named CaPP. The CaPP concept is a complex sociotechnical system. A large network of players is involved in the development and operation of its technical infrastructure and physical components. To illustrate how the CaPP system will work, we designed a 100% renewable integrated energy and transport system for a smart city area based on wind, solar, hydrogen, and FCEVs inspired by the city of Hamburg, Germany. Using technoeconomic analysis, we have shown that such a design is technically feasible. However, technical feasibility cannot be guaranteed without considering the controllability of the system. So, the next challenge was to maintain the supply -demand balance as well as to minimize the operational costs of the FCEVs, which we have done by using advanced control techniques. We stressed that operation of such an innovative concept should be accompanied by an institutional analysis and by designing an organizational system structure. To this end, we studied the system behavior using different contracts between the system agents, i.e., the owners of FCEVs and the aggregators.New policies to be defined for carbon -free energy transition are manifold, and policymakers require broader knowledge from different disciplines to address the challenges of such system transition. Our framework stresses the need to consider different aspects such as technology, economics, control, institutional, and social perspectives in modeling energy systems. As such, it provides a clearer and more comprehensive insight into the realization of such an energy system to policymakers, compared with the individual models. Moreover, to realize a carbon -free energy system, sector coupling is needed, i.e., the energy and transport sectors should support each other. For this matter, V2G is a promising technology, and FCEVs give more fl exibility than standard battery EVa since, in addition to storage, they can operate as dispatchable power plants independent of the electricity grid. The CaPP system and our combined framework are an example of such a carbon -free energy system offering sector coupling and facilitating the penetration of 100% intermittent renewables without any compromise on reliability of energy supply for power, heat, and transport and, at the same time, reducing system cost. Moreover, our approach will engage consumers to have a more active role in the energy transition as prosumers. The future research will also include grid modeling to explore different system configurations, e.g., hydrogen pipeline grids next to electricity grids, and to investigate whether a combination of battery and FCEVs can reduce total system cost even further.