A review of energy management strategies for renewable hybrid energy systems with hydrogen backup

Abstract Hybrid systems are presented as a viable, safe and effective solution to minimize the associated problems of the dependence on renewable energies with the environmental resources. In this way different renewable systems such as photovoltaic, wind, hydrogen and so on, can work together to configure hybrid renewable systems. However, to make them work properly in a holistic way by creating synergies among them is not an easy task. Recently hydrogen technology has appeared as a promising technology to hybridize renewable energy systems, since it allows the generation (by electrolyzers) and storage of hydrogen when there is a surplus of energy in the system, and at a later time (e.g. when there are insufficient renewable resources available) using the stored hydrogen to generate electrical energy by fuel cells. The choice of a correct energy management strategy should guarantee an optimum performance of the whole hybrid renewable system; therefore, it is necessary to know the most important criteria in order to define a management strategy that ensures the best solution from a technical and economic point of view. This paper presents a critical review and analysis of different energy management strategies for hybrid renewable systems based on hydrogen backup. In the same way, a review is also presented of the most important technical and economic optimization criteria, as well as problems and solutions studied in the scientific literature.