Multi-channel common-plant reservation of NPP own needs based on combination with an autonomous hydrogen energy complex

   The authors have developed an autonomous hydrogen energy complex and analyzed its economic efficiency. The developed energy complex is multifunctional. The main result of the work is the production and supply of electricity to the power system during high load hours. In addition, low-power steam turbines included in the energy complex can provide plant-wide backup for the NPP’s own needs in the event of a station blackout: based on experimental data from the Balakovo NPP, it was previously shown that one power unit with a low-power turbine using the energy of the decay heat of the reactor can, if the connection between the NPP and the power system is broken, provide electricity to several power units for a long time. Thanks to the installation of low-power turbines as part of the hydrogen energy complex, their constant heated state and self-sufficiency will be ensured by generating electricity into the power system or for their own needs in normal mode. The work discusses options for installing an autonomous hydrogen energy complex with and without replacing expensive external heat exchangers of the passive heat removal system of the reactor core. The efficiency of an alternative option without installing a storage system with the sale of off-peak electricity to the power system, which is used to produce hydrogen/oxygen by electrolysis, depending on the tariff for off-peak electricity, is also calculated. Due to the lack of operating analogues of the hydrogen energy complex, several options for proposed capital investments were considered. The results of the study revealed that replacing expensive equipment of a passive heat removal system significantly increases the economic efficiency of the proposed redundancy system. For the accepted capital investment options, the boundary values of the off-peak selling tariff for electricity are shown, at which the use of a storage system is more effective in comparison with the sale of nighttime electricity to the power system.

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