Hydrogen Dashboard is designed to retrieve and visualize power generation and consumption data from the SMARD API. The dashboard provides graphical analysis and enables direct comparison with hydrogen as a fuel source.
Use Case Window:
The use case window lets you select different real-world scenarios (e.g., Off-Grid Home, Microgrid, EV Charging Station, Industrial Plant). Each use case changes the simulation parameters to reflect typical machinery and energy needs for that scenario.
Simulation Overview:
The simulation models a renewable energy system using four main components:
- Photovoltaik – Generates electricity from sunlight, charging the battery and powering other components.
- Battery – Stores excess electricity for later use, balances supply and demand.
- Electrolyzer – Converts surplus electricity into hydrogen, which can be stored for long-term energy needs.
- Fuel Cell – Converts stored hydrogen back into electricity when needed, especially when prices are high or solar is unavailable.
Thermal energy extraction:
The simulation can recover heat produced as a by‑product from the electrochemical machinery — primarily the
electrolyzer and the
fuel cell. Recoverable heat is derived from each machine's instantaneous throughput and inefficiency: the model computes the machine's energy flow over the current tick, applies its conversion efficiency, and treats the remainder (multiplied by a configurable recoverable fraction and heat‑exchanger efficiency) as recoverable thermal energy. That energy is accumulated in a small thermal storage object (shown in the UI in kWh) up to the configured capacity; the storage also experiences passive losses over time.
Per‑use‑case thermal capacity & losses:
By default the thermal storage is initialized to
50 kWh and the model applies passive losses configured as
1% per hour (the loss fraction is applied proportional to the simulation time step). The UI also provides a computed recommendation for thermal capacity based on the configured machines; that recommendation is clamped to
10–200 kWh so suggestions stay within the app's UI range.
Suggested guidance for the built‑in use cases:
- Off‑Grid Home — typical battery setting: ~20 kWh. Practical thermal capacity: 10–50 kWh. A 50 kWh tank can provide domestic hot water for a small household for multiple days or run a 2.2 kW kettle for ~22 hours.
- Microgrid (remote village) — battery example: ~500 kWh. Practical thermal capacity: 50–200 kWh. 200 kWh can cover community heating spikes or provide multi‑home short‑term heating.
- EV Charging Station — station example: ~1,000 kWh battery. Useful thermal capacity: 50–200 kWh. 200 kWh offsets many small heating loads or service heating events.
- Industrial Plant — plant scale is multi‑MW and battery examples in the app are very large (multi‑MWh). The in‑app recommendation is capped at 200 kWh for UI safety; industrial sites often require MWh‑scale thermal stores. You can manually increase `thermalStorage.capacity_kWh` for industrial scenarios but expect passive losses to scale with stored energy.
Graphs:
The dashboard features interactive graphs that display power generation, consumption, storage levels, and market prices over time. These help you analyze system performance, track energy flows, and compare the impact of different use cases.
Trading Panel:
The trading panel allows you to buy or sell electricity based on real-time or simulated market prices. You can manually execute trades, set thresholds for automated trading, and see the effect on your system's storage and finances.
Tip: Adjust parameters and switch use cases to explore how different setups affect your energy system's efficiency and profitability.
