H2GO Power, in collaboration with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and Imperial College London, are trialling the use of artificial intelligence (AI) software coupled with hydrogen technology.

Funded by Innovate UK and the Sustainable Innovation Fund, the HyAI (Hydrogen Artificial Intelligence) project is a pilot demonstration of AI software-controlled hydrogen storage technology. HyAI will show how software integrated with hydrogen hardware can make intelligent, data-driven asset management decisions in real time and optimize renewable energy integration into the UK electricity grid.

Led by London-based H2GO Power, developers of low-pressure hydrogen energy storage and AI-driven asset management software, the project has integrated an innovative AI software platform with one of the company’s hydrogen storage units.

Trialling the system using energy data supplied by EMEC from its Hydrogen Production Plant in Orkney, the AI platform acts as an energy management system, integrating data about weather, electricity prices and grid management. It then translates this information using AI predictive algorithms to optimize the operation of the storage systems by predicting future power cost and user demands. Imperial College London’s Computer Science Department supports HyAI with data management and modelling.

With the HyAI project demonstration underway and live until summer 2021, initial results have indicated that the AI-enabled approach can produce hydrogen in a more cost-effective way, while also helping to alleviate stresses on the national grid. This has the potential to increase power reliability, allow for higher penetrations of renewable energy, a accelerate the shift to a net-zero emission economy.

Building on this project, the next steps are to facilitate a commercial demonstration of H2GO Power’s AI software platform and power to power hydrogen storage technology. To this end, H2GO has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with EMEC to install and integrate the technology at EMEC’s test site in Orkney in the future. This exciting collaboration will pilot the first energy storage unit that stores renewable energy on demand as an unpressurised solid-state-hydrogen, coupled with the AI software platform.