Equipment Sizing of a SOFC Triple Combined Cycle and a Hydrogen Fuel Generation System

The power generation sector has seen massive rapid developments in the past decades, mainly in renewables and clean energy. One of the crucial reasons for this change is the urgency to counter global warming and ensure a sustainable environment by 2050. The future power plants are designed to emit carbon dioxide as minimum as possible, as it is the leading gas cause of global warming, by transitioning from fossil fuel to clean fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia, and other alternatives. Wind energy is one of the cleanest sources for power generation, but due to its nature, the produced power fluctuates over time, thus, typically a battery storage system is added. However, in the case of large-scale integration of renewables into the power system, the battery storage system alone is not adequate to manage the occurring power fluctuation, especially considering the cost of the battery storage system. On the other hand, numerous thermal power plants still have more than 15 years of lifetime, and a handful started operating in the 2020s. Hence it's safe to assume that even in 2050, thermal power plants will still be present consequently providing further stabilization in case of power fluctuations. This study analyzes power fluctuation stabilization capability in which the power system consists of a renewable power generation of wind energy and a triple combined cycle power plant of a fuel cell and a combined cycle power plant. The system also has a hydrogen generation system to provide hydrogen fuel for the combined cycle. As the response capability of equipment is related to its capacity, an appropriate size determination for each piece of equipment is crucial.