Within the development of the “TwinP2G” service for Pilot 4 (DEPA), a service which aimed to deliver a Digital Twin (DT) for customized and optimized simulations of Power-to-Gas investments, the Decision Support Systems Laboratory of NTUA has delivered the first in a series of research on Power-to-Gas investments for the Greek energy sector.
TwinP2G as a reference for the study on P2G systems
The service, TwinP2G, provided by the Decision Support Systems Laboratory of NTUA, a partner in the ENERSHARE project from its start, will be a tool for data scientists and energy engineers who want to easily model their own Power-to-Gas (P2G) “simulated projects”, with customized investments in wind, solar, and fossil-fuel based energy sources, which can power an electrolysis unit, producing green hydrogen. The DT’s optimization algorithm can then find the economically optimal sizes of electrolysis size, hydrogen storage size, and methanation unit size and deliver key statistics of the performance of the investment.
The study
The study “Towards innovative power-to-gas investments in Greece – Novel simulation scenarios and assessment framework”, provided a review on the potential use cases of renewable hydrogen solutions, and on the cutting-edge research results on Power-to-Gas (PtG) technologies, its advantages and challenges.
Proposed investment simulations for the Greek energy sector
It also suggested a series of different optimized investment scenarios simulations in order to gain first insights into the economics of renewable hydrogen and renewable methane production in Greece, its challenges, and potentials. The scenarios include investments in Renewable Energy Sources such as wind and solar energy, which will provide the energy to power the electrolysis, producing either hydrogen or renewable synthetic methane. Other investments will obtain the energy needed through PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements). Other scenarios of the study proposed the additional investment in hydrogen regenerative fuel cells (HRFCs).
The study’s proposed assessment methods
The study concluded with the technical, economic, and environmental key performance indicators which will need to be measured in order to evaluate the success and overall performance of the investments, among others covering:
- Technical: how intensively will the renewable energy generators be utilized? How much time will the electrolysis unit need to operate on average? How much hydrogen will need to be stored?
- Economic: Under which conditions are the investments economically viable? What is the minimum threshold of the price of renewable hydrogen or synthetic methane that can make such investments viable? How much investment will be needed?
- Environmental: how much CO2 emissions will be saved due to such investments?
