Development of a two-layer control and management system for a residential microgrid with HT-PEMFC-based micro-CHP

High-temperature Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC) is a convincing choice for micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP) systems. Such system can not only meet household electrical and thermal demands but also increase the energy efficiency. In this paper, the methanol-reformed HT-PEMFC-based micro-CHP system is carefully designed and modeled with respect to its electrical and thermal dynamics. To address the slow dynamics and long start-up time of the fuel cell system, alongside uneven electrical and thermal demand from the household, a battery and a hot-water tank are adopted as electricity and thermal storage, respectively. In order to ensure the coordinated and economical operation for such multi-energy system, a two-layer controlling and management framework is developed. The upper layer consists of an optimization-based day-ahead energy management system (EMS) to provide an optimal power generation schedules according to the available next-day electricity price. The lower layer consists of a decentralized framework to realize the instantaneous power sharing and is designed from two perspectives: supervised and unsupervised. The results show the micro-CHP system improves overall energy efficiency to 73%. Installation of the micro-CHP system together with a battery pack reduces daily costs by up to 28.09%. The supervised control framework, in particular, optimizes resource use and extends battery life by reducing charge cycles, holding benefits over unsupervised control. • A methanol reformed HT-PEMFC-based micro-CHP system is developed. • A multi-energy residential microgrid is modeled and studied. • The feasibility of using micro-CHP is residential microgrid is demonstrated. • A two-layer control and management system is developed. • By implementing EMS, great potential for cost and energy savings can be expected.