Robust operation planning method for integrated solid oxide fuel cells in a collective housing with electric power interchange system considering uncertainty in demand forecast

The subject of this study is to propose a power interchange system in a collective housing with residential solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and a robust operation planning method for integrated SOFCs against uncertain energy demand forecast. In this method, the future operation plan for multiple SOFCs is optimized and determined to minimize the expected total primary energy consumption in the collective housing considering uncertainty in demand forecast. If the forecast energy demand includes forecast errors, the result of SOFCs operation will corrupt from the viewpoint of the primary energy consumption. Thus, the output decision problem for SOFCs is formulated by considering the corruption caused by forecast errors, so that the decided SOFC outputs have the robustness against uncertainty in demand forecast. The validity of the proposed method is examined based on numerical simulations from the perspective of the robustness.