Work Package 5

Evaluation and Demonstration of UHS benefits in integrated energy systems 

The main objective of this work package is to present best practice examples and recommendations on how to integrate hydrogen storage facilities into the local, national and European energy infrastructure (including the European Hydrogen Backbone) and markets in different European regions and energy scenarios considering findings from the demonstrator (WP 3) and the replication sites in WP 4. Furthermore, any income to be included in WP5, related to market, technical improvements and/or regulation matters will be shared for possible updates in WP3 and WP 4. The use cases in AT, NL, HU and ES that were chosen differ in terms of share and type of variable electricity sources (mainly based on wind, solar, hydro), hydrogen supply profiles, hydrogen demand profile (e.g. industry), levels of hydrogen imports, and position in relation to the European hydrogen transport infrastructure. This will lead to different requirement profiles for the UHS facilities to be developed and integrated, as each use case will have its own unique flexibility requirements. In a four-stepped approach, recommendations are elaborated beginning on (1) how to integrate the demonstrator site in a regional network, then (2) how to upscale it to a commercial-scale and integrate it into the nationwide network of Austria, followed by (3) how to integrate the three replication sites in NL, HU and ES given their specific regional and national storage scenarios. In a fourth step, the results of the case studies will be jointly assessed to derive recommendations on storage integration in different environments and to provide feed on the specific use case for each replication site into the optimisation loop of task 4.7 in WP 4.  

For each use case, at least the following KPIs will be calculated to serve as an input to task 5.5 (further KPIs will be developed depending on the use case): 

• Storage capacity; 
• Injection and withdrawal rate and profile; 
• How expected storage efficiency (retrieved hydrogen compared to the total amount injected) affects the overall energy system; 
• Reflecting on Costs/Economics: based on the findings of WP 3 and furthermore WP 4.

Last but not least all use case findings will enter into a generalised replication plan that presents the recommendations and best practice examples that should facilitate a replication of integration of other EU sites into their respective energy scenario. All this information will feed WP 6, focused on the dissemination of results, stakeholder engagement and exploitation.