The facility will run on renewable energy at the microwave oven assembly plant by controlling three batteries, combining a pure hydrogen fuel cell with a solar cell and a storage battery in coordination.

PMUK will increase resilience by efficiently generating and storing only the electricity needed at its base, and will also build an energy management system (EMS) that follows changes in the plant's power demand and weather changes in the UK. The EMS is scheduled to start operation by the end of March 2025 to stably supply renewable energy to the microwave oven assembly plant.

PMUK will introduce 21 5 kW pure hydrogen fuel cells as a distributed system optimized for the power consumption of the microwave oven assembly plant, combining 372 kW solar cells and 1 MWh storage batteries, aiming to supply the necessary power with 100% renewable energy.

The 21 pure hydrogen fuel cells will be controlled in a coordinated manner to level out operating hours and improve maintainability by enabling uninterrupted maintenance.

In addition, the use of green hydrogen produced in the UK will achieve decarbonization of the electricity used in the microwave oven assembly plant. As for the solar power generation equipment, 372 kW of the solar cells with a total capacity of 760 kW installed on the roof of the PMUK building last year will be used for the microwave oven assembly plant.

“We will develop and verify the effectiveness of a highly effective solution that combines the existing solar cells with newly installed pure hydrogen fuel cells and storage batteries to control the three batteries in a coordinated manner.”

In addition, in this demonstration facility, the heat generated during power generation by the pure hydrogen fuel cell will be used for heating and hot water supply in the microwave oven assembly plant, and cogeneration will aim to achieve 95% energy efficiency for the pure hydrogen fuel cell.

The heat generated during power generation will be used to preheat the newly installed "water circulation type air conditioning" (adjusting the room temperature by circulating hot and cold water created by collecting heat from the atmosphere inside the room), and thermal linkage will further reduce power consumption during hot water heating operation.

In addition, thermal linkage will be performed with the existing electric boiler to reduce the power consumption required for hot water supply in the plant. In controlling the EMS, external local weather forecast data will be incorporated while accumulating demonstration data on the balance of power supply and demand, such as changes in weather conditions and demand fluctuations, accumulating know-how for advancing the EMS, which is one of the core technologies, and strengthening supply and demand adjustment technology that minimizes losses in the generation, storage, and transmission of renewable energy and ensures a stable supply.

Fuel Cell System and Fuel Cell System Control Method