Exploiting Electrolyzer Flexibility across Multiscale Energy Markets

Electricity cost and equipment degradation remain key barriers to competitive hydrogen production via water electrolysis. Current electrolyzers are typically optimized within a single electricity market, leaving unresolved how cross-market coordination affects their degradation behavior and techno-economic performance. Here, we show that flexible proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers can reduce hydrogen production costs by coordinating participation in day-ahead and real-time markets. We develop a multiscale model predictive control framework that jointly optimizes electricity procurement and electrolyzer operation while explicitly accounting for high-fidelity electrochemical behavior and membrane degradation. The controller aligns hourly day-ahead commitments with high-frequency real-time adjustments, enabling exploitation of intermarket price differentials under rigorous operational and durability constraints. Using year-long Texas grid data, we demonstrate electricity cost reductions up to fourfold. Moreover, degradation-aware operation shifts electrolyzer loading toward low-wear regimes, showing that dynamic market-responsive operation can simultaneously lower costs and extend component lifetime. © 2026 American Chemical Society.