High electricity costs remain one of the primary
bottlenecks limiting the large-scale deployment of wind-PV-powered hydrogen
production. In wind-PV hydrogen production systems, the output characteristics
of wind and PV power, the wind-PV-storage-load configuration ratio, and the
grid-connected/off-grid operation mode will affect the utilization rate of wind
and PV power generation and the electricity consumption structure for hydrogen
production, thereby influencing the variable and fixed costs per unit of
hydrogen production. This study develops a bi-level levelized cost of hydrogen
(BLCOH) analysis model for grid-connected wind-PV-storage hydrogen production
systems, explicitly accounting for the dynamic changes in renewable energy
supply and hydrogen production electricity consumption. The model is applied to
compare the cost performance of three system configurations: off-grid wind-PV
hydrogen production, off-grid wind-PV-storage hydrogen production, and
grid-connected wind-PV-storage hydrogen production. Furthermore, the impacts of
renewable energy utilization hours, hydrogen production operating hours, and
peak-shaving electricity pricing on hydrogen production costs are
quantitatively analyzed. Results indicate that integrating energy storage
improves renewable energy utilization and enables additional revenue through grid
peak-shaving services, while grid connection enhances the operational
reliability of hydrogen production systems. Among the evaluated configurations,
the grid-connected wind-PV-storage hydrogen production system achieves the
lowest hydrogen production cost, making it a promising pathway for future
development. Additionally, this study provides analytical expressions for
estimating critical thresholds of storage cost, grid electricity price, and the
combined cost of storage and grid connection for wind-PV hydrogen production
systems.
