PEM Water Electrolyzer Robust Control Under Renewable Energy Source Intermittency

This paper investigates the design and experimental validation of robust control for a proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer integrated with a stacked interleaved buck converter, aimed at regulating hydrogen production from renewable energy source. A model of the electrolyzer is obtained using the output error identification method. A State-space model of the electrolyzer coupled with the converter is therefore determined using the averaging method. To address variations in operating conditions during hydrogen production under renewable energy source intermittency, a robust control strategy based on normalized coprime factorizations is implemented. The obtained the full-order controller is reduced using a method that incorporates closed-loop behavior into the truncation process via frequency-weighted closed-loop sensitivity functions. Experimental validation demonstrates the controller’s efficacy in adapting to changes in set-points and environmental conditions, underlining its theoretical robustness against renewable energy source intermittency. • Several PEMWE identification methods are proposed and discussed. • Designed controller ensures robustness against RES variations. • Reduced-order controller achieves same performance as full-order one in closed-loop. • Experimental validation of PEMWE control under RES intermittency.