A method for determining optimum design for fuel-cell-based energy network

For a fuel-cell-based energy network to spread in usage, determining its configuration by minimizing the CO₂ emissions or operation cost is necessary. We report on a method for determining an energy network design. The feature of this method is the combination of linear programming (LP) and a genetic algorithm (GA). LP is used to calculate the minimum value of the objective function for each candidate solution of the amount of energy equipment. These calculated values are used as criteria for selecting the best solution. For each candidate solution, the configuration is calculated using GA, and the best solution is then determined. This proposed method is effective for determining the best configuration design for an energy network.