Flexibility and profitability in power-to-methanol plants: Integrating storage solutions and reserve market participation

Flexible operation of Power-to-Methanol plants is highly valuable, as it helps reducing the cost of the green methanol. This reduction is reached by enabling the system to align with electricity price fluctuations while meeting production targets and ensuring profitability. Although electrolyzers exhibit significant flexibility, there is a gap in the literature regarding the integration and impact of other components such as hydrogen storage, batteries, and raw methanol storage on the operational flexibility of the system, as well as the potential of reserve market participation for such plants. This study contributes novel insights by systematically analyzing the combined impact of hydrogen storage and batteries within a Power-to-Methanol plant and assessing their influence on performance and profitability. The analysis is based on a real-world case study located in DK1 market. It uniquely explores potential revenue streams from flexible plant operations, focusing on reserve market participation. Results reveal that hydrogen storage helps maintaining the feedstock flow for the methanol plant under fluctuating electricity prices, 8–11 % of the time, and battery plays a crucial role by balancing electricity fluctuations and supplying about 4 % of the plant's electricity demand. Additionally, battery contributes to the plant profitability by facilitating the electricity arbitrage. Moreover, the results demonstrate the role of flexibility in reserve market participation, bringing about up to 5 % reduction in the levelized cost of production.