Two-time Scale Optimal Dispatch Algorithm for Hydrogen Production Using Nuclear Power to Enable High Penetration of DERs

This paper presents a novel two-time scale dispatch optimization framework for integrated energy systems (IES) that include nuclear power plant, and high temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE) for hydrogen production in a power grid environment. A section of the modified IEEE 39 bus is defined as an independent system operator (ISO) region, which consists of two cases of Distributed Energy Resources (wind and solar), 4-loop pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant, HTSE and gas power plant. The HTSE-PWR integration within the ISO is designed to improve the flexibility of the PWR. A two timescale mixed integer linear programing (MILP) optimization approach which determines the optimal setpoints for the gas power plant, HTSE, and DERs is proposed. Unlike existing IES formulation in literature, the proposed optimization formulation is designed to maximize the use of DERs within the ISO, limit the impact of excess power sold or brought from the rest of the grid, and adhere to the ramp limitation of the HTSE. The obtained optimization and realtime simulation results show that with improved flexibility of the PWR based on HTSE integration, the ISO is able to integrate more renewable DERs at different levels of penetration without violating the required grid and HTSE constraints.