Challenges in Integrating Electrolyzers into Power Systems: Review of Current Literature and Suggested Solutions

The growth of green hydrogen technologies is changing modern power systems with the addition of large, dynamic and flexible electricity consumers. Electrolyzers, as the fundamental technology for green hydrogen production, have a specific set of features upon their operation that will largely impact grid stability, voltage regulation, harmonic distortion and frequency control. Their massive penetration brings several protection and operational issues that are distinct from the classic industrial loads. Sophisticated protection techniques are needed to deal with overcurrent, overvoltage and short-circuit problems as well as power quality variations whilst maintaining the coordination with existing protections. This review is aimed at summarizing the status of green hydrogen production and its aspired relationship to electrical grids. It is an investigation that systematically looks at technical, operational and protection challenges connected with electrolyzers’ integration. Moreover, this paper investigates the analysis of protection strategies and various grid integration scenarios in renewable-rich/hybrid power systems. Finally, this paper presents some research challenges and cutting-edge technologies to aid in innovations of advanced techniques for the protection of electrolyzers and power systems. The results are expected to provide guidance for the future study and application of reliable, secure and economically sound integration of green hydrogen production in emerging power networks.