An Innovative Electric–Hydrogen Microgrid with PV as Backup Power for Substation Auxiliary Systems with Capacity Configuration

Substations’ auxiliary systems support the station’s operational loads and are crucial for grid security, often requiring backup power to ensure uninterrupted operation. A new alternative for this backup power supply is a microgrid composed of photovoltaic (PV) generation and storage. This paper proposes an electric–hydrogen microgrid as backup power supply for substation auxiliary systems. This microgrid ensures power supply during emergencies, provides clean and stable energy for daily operations, and enhances environmental friendliness and profitability. Firstly, using a 220 kV substation as an example, the construction principles of the proposed backup power microgrid are introduced. Secondly, operation strategies under different scenarios are proposed, considering time-sharing tariffs and different weather conditions. Following this, the capacity configuration optimization model of the electric–hydrogen microgrid is proposed, incorporating critical thresholds for energy reserves to ensure system robustness under fault conditions. Finally, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to solve the problem, and a sensitivity analysis is performed on hydrogen market pricing to evaluate its impact on the system’s economic feasibility. The results indicate that the proposed electric–hydrogen microgrid is more economical and provides better fault power supply time than battery-only power supply. With the development of hydrogen energy storage technology, the economy of the proposed microgrid is expected to improve further in the future.