Toshiba’s H2One storage system to undergo two year test run

Toshiba Corp is to support a two-year study of power management using storage, to be carried out by Tohoku Electric Power Co, on a hydrogen based autonomous energy supply system.

In Japan various solutions to the problem of maintaining the quality and reliability of an electrical supply grid that includes significant amounts of variable renewables are being investigated. Tohoku Electric decided to trial Toshiba’s H2One system, starting in March 2017, and has placed an order to that effect.

Hiroyuki Ota, general manager of Toshiba’s Energy Systems & Solutions Company, commented: “A best mix of power sources will contribute to energy security and sustainability, and introducing renewables and hydrogen into that mix will help to achieve the crucial goal of a low-carbon future. Hydrogen offers an innovative approach to emission-free clean energy, and we want to promote wide acceptance of hydrogen solutions.”

Toshiba’s advanced EMS provides the data on the renewable energy supply-and- demand balance which can be used to stabilise electricity output. Over the two years of the project, Tohoku Electric will monitor the viability of the hydrogen power storage system as a solution for offsetting power output fluctuations caused by an expansion of renewables.

Dual purpose

Toshiba sees the system as having usefulness both for general balancing and as an autonomous energy supply during times of emergency. This issue is especially sensitive in Japan in the wake of the 2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster, which highlighted the need for a stable energy supply when essential utilities are lost.

In recent years, renewable energy has been seen as an emergency solution. However renewables depend on the weather and can be unstable. Toshiba regards a hybrid system as a better solution.

Its version offers ‘a total one-stop solution’, from using renewable energy to produce and store hydrogen, to using that hydrogen in fuel cells. In normal use and in emergency situations, the H2One unit contributes to energy supply stability by using hydrogen generated with renewable energy.

In everyday use the usage rate and storage of each of the electricity, hot water, and hydrogen components used in facilities are monitored and optimum control for operation is carried out in order to reduce the electricity charges and the amount of carbon dioxide emitted.

In emergency deployment the unit can independently supply electricity and hot water.Thesysteminits‘worldstandardsize’ can be transported anywhere it is needed.