Assessing the Role of Hydrogen in California’s Decarbonizing Electric System

This report is the final product of the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) grant agreement (EPC-23-004), which included “an assessment of the potential role of hydrogen production from renewable electricity and end-use conversion technologies for electric sector applications in California’s decarbonizing electric system.” One of the primary objectives was to inform how future EPIC program investments in hydrogen can best coordinate with and complement other hydrogen development and deployment programs.

The research team conducted a techno-economic analysis to assess the cost and readiness of a range of technologies associated with a Senate Bill 100-compliant (zero greenhouse gas emissions) electricity grid in California. These technologies include hydrogen production, storage, and conversion, other types of energy storage, and solar and wind generation. The team then modeled the cost of serving load in a grid using hydrogen storage for two operational configurations: a daily cycle and a seasonal cycle. Results show that the seasonal cycle configuration reduces costs when compared with a grid without hydrogen. The findings were used to make recommendations related to hydrogen technology development and policy for the EPIC program.