A network of residential fuel cells and operational strategies: evaluation with a PC simulator and an experimental system

Introduction of fuel cells into residential homes would be a realistic option of near future in present state in Japan. Research and development on polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) for residential use is at the final stage toward commercial market launch. This paper presents the concept of the interconnection of residential homes with energy networks, and a PC simulator and an experimental system for evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of the networks, and the result of simulation and experimentation with those evaluation tools. The homes can share their energy equipment virtually by the networks. It provides flexible and efficient operation of the equipment, and reduces partial load operation and start-stop operation which damage the efficiency or the life time of fuel processors. Some operational strategies of the fuel cells were proposed and evaluated with both simulation and experimentation. The evaluation result also revealed that fuel cell systems should be installed to not all homes but some homes within residential areas to realize efficient operation.