Dynamic Collaborative Pricing for Managing Refueling Demand of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

Green hydrogen from renewable energy is a promising option to satisfy the growing refueling demand of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs). However, the intermittency of renewable energy and the random integration of HFCVs may result in a supply-demand mismatch in the hydrogen transportation systems. This may bring down system operation efficiency and deteriorate user experience. This paper proposes a dynamic collaborative pricing mechanism for managing the refueling demand of HFCVs to minimize the operating cost of the system. First, based on a leader-follower game, we design a hydrogen trading mechanism between hydrogen generation stations and off-site refueling stations. Then, we propose a locational marginal hydrogen pricing method based on the duality theory. This method can determine the refueling stations’ spatiotemporal retail prices. Based on this dynamic pricing mechanism, we further develop a refueling navigation strategy for HFCVs that incorporates the practical multi-trip chains to manage their refueling demand. Finally, numerical experiments validate that the proposed method can maximize the total social surplus and reduce the total travel cost of HFCVs by optimizing the trading strategies and spatiotemporal distribution of the refueling demand.