Enhancing operational resilience of standalone photovoltaic-electrolyzer systems
A comparative analysis of single- and dual-stage power interface architectures
Pingyang Sun (University of New South Wales)
Chunjun Huang (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Hanwen Zhang (University of Bath)
Zihang Qiu (University of New South Wales)
Shu Geng (University of New South Wales)
Kaiwen Sun (University of New South Wales)
Xiaojing Hao (University of New South Wales)
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Abstract
Off-grid power delivery from photovoltaic (PV) systems to electrolyzers serves as a key pathway toward sustainable green hydrogen production, with the PV output voltage adapted to the electrolyzer operating voltage by dc/dc converters. However, a systematic understanding of the performance trade-offs between different converter architectures and their associated control strategies is still lacking, particularly for ensuring robust operation under intermittent solar conditions. This paper presents a systematic comparative study of single- and dual-stage dc/dc converter architectures for standalone PV-electrolyzer (PVEC) systems. The study investigates the fundamental control trade-offs, comparing the single-stage's rigid electrolyzer-following operation with the dual-stage's superior flexibility in providing direct electrolyzer current regulation. To enhance operational resilience, two distinct low power ride-through (LPRT) strategies are proposed and analyzed for the dual-stage configuration, ensuring stable power delivery during significant solar power reductions. The feasibility and performance of the proposed architectures and control strategies are validated through both 5 kW system simulations and experiments on a 200 W GaN-based hardware prototype. The results demonstrate that while the single-stage architecture is viable for small-scale systems, the dual-stage configuration's enhanced control flexibility and scalability are essential for large-scale, storage-ready PVEC applications.
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