A Game-Theoretic Framework for Hydrogen Integration to Accelerate Energy Transitions in Great Britain

This presentation introduces a game-theoretic framework for hydrogen integration within Great Britain’s multi-vector energy system. The research investigates how hydrogen can support the transition toward a net-zero energy system by enhancing flexibility across electricity, heating, and transportation sectors while addressing economic and operational challenges.

The study develops an integrated optimisation framework combining long-term planning and short-term operational modelling using Python-based tools including pandapower, pandapipes, and Pyomo. A Nash-Cournot equilibrium approach is applied to evaluate strategic investment decisions for hydrogen technologies and renewable energy deployment between 2025 and 2050.

Key Highlights

• Integrated Multi-Vector Energy System: The framework models coupled electricity and gas/hydrogen networks across Great Britain, enabling coordinated analysis of hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and power generation.
• Game-Theoretic Optimisation: A bi-level optimisation structure was developed to determine optimal investment strategies under different future scenarios. The framework solves for a Nash-Cournot equilibrium where each player maximises their Net Present Value (NPV) without unilateral strategic advantage.
• Hydrogen as a Flexibility Vector: Results demonstrate that hydrogen technologies can contribute up to 13.02% of peak electricity demand support, highlighting hydrogen’s potential role in balancing renewable variability and reducing curtailment.
• Renewable Energy Integration: High renewable energy scenarios achieved up to 64.82% renewable utilisation, showing that hydrogen infrastructure can complement renewable expansion and compensate for limited battery storage deployment.
• Scenario-Based Planning (2025–2050): Multiple investment scenarios were assessed, including:
  • Uniform +25 GW technology expansion
  • High Renewable Energy – High Hydrogen
  • High Renewable Energy – Low Hydrogen
  • High Hydrogen – Low Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
  These scenarios explored trade-offs between operational cost, renewable utilisation, infrastructure investment, and system flexibility.
• Operational Cost and Emissions Reduction: The simulations achieved zero operational CO₂ emissions in several 2050 scenarios, with operational costs ranging from £2.05m to £6.64m depending on technology allocation and system flexibility.
• Policy and Future Research: The findings emphasise the importance of policy mechanisms such as electrolyser subsidies to support hydrogen deployment. Future work will extend the framework using cooperative game theory for coalition-based planning approaches.

This work contributes toward understanding how hydrogen integration can accelerate energy transitions in Great Britain while supporting long-term decarbonisation and energy system resilience.

For further details, view the presentation slides here PDF link.