Investigation of the efficiency of commercial hydrogen production at NPP. Comparison with autonomous low capacity production

The increase in the share of energy output from nuclear power plants and the emergence of new requirements of the system operator of the Unified Energy System (UES) of the Russian Federation raise the question of increasing the efficiency of nuclear power plants in alternating mode. At the same time, the operation of nuclear power plants is economically feasible with a maximum utilization rate of installed capacity due to significant capital investments and the low price of nuclear fuel. A possible solution to regulating the level of supplied electricity during off-peak hours of energy consumption is to direct its excess to produce hydrogen with its further sale to consumers without reducing the power of the power unit. According to the analysis, most enterprises that are potential consumers of hydrogen from nuclear power plants have their own modular installations for its production. In the work, a comparative analysis of centralized hydrogen production at nuclear power plants and hydrogen production at places of its consumption was carried out. The daily period of hydrogen production at nuclear power plants is limited to the night period, when there is an excess of generating capacity in the energy system. In this case, local hydrogen production can be carried out evenly throughout the day. This leads to an increase in the cost of hydrogen production at nuclear power plants due to a larger storage system and an increase in the number of compressor and electrolysis units. Nuclear power plants will require significant costs to transport the generated gas. At the same time, the advantage of a nuclear power plant is the cost of consumed electricity, taken at the level of the cost of its production. For industrial consumers, the electricity tariff is significantly higher. In the work, a comparative assessment of the cost of hydrogen production at nuclear power plants and at the site of its consumption was carried out taking into account a range of system conditions. A sales premium to the cost of hydrogen production at nuclear power plants was additionally adopted. Zones of competitive efficiency in the implementation of the hydrogen complex at nuclear power plants have been identified, in which the production of hydrogen at the site of its consumption requires greater costs than the purchase of commercial hydrogen from nuclear power plants. Based on the competitive range of the sales premium to the selling price of hydrogen at nuclear power plants and the accepted initial conditions, an assessment of the accumulated net present value and payback period of the hydrogen production plant was carried out during its production at nuclear power plants for sale.

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