h2e POWER Runs India's First Autonomous Solid Oxide Electrolyzer for 6,000 Hours on Schneider Electric AI Control

The AI-powered control solution on h2e POWER's 20 kW solid oxide electrolyzer (SOEC) has surpassed 6,000 hours of stable operation in part- and full-load conditions. The article describes it as India's first fully autonomous solid oxide electrolyzer system. It has demonstrated just-in-time predictive maintenance and promise in cutting electricity consumption by up to 10%, in a process where electricity accounts for more than 70% of total hydrogen production cost. The levelized cost of hydrogen fell by up to 10%, equivalent to around EUR 500,000 per year for a typical 10 MW plant. "This open architecture also means we can redeploy intelligence across our entire installed base across multiple locations, without the lock in that has constrained industrial innovation for decades," said Siddharth Mayur, founder and managing director of h2e POWER. Solid oxide electrolyzers offer the highest efficiency of any hydrogen production technology, but their operating conditions are so demanding that autonomous operation has been difficult. h2e POWER, based in Pune with operations in India, Germany and the USA, faced limited real-time visibility and a lack of open, scalable automation, which pushed operating costs well above design targets. Working with Schneider Electric, h2e POWER deployed the new control solution on its 20 kW SOEC system. It continuously monitors and adjusts the electrolyzer in real time, managing thermal balance, hydrogen flow, energy inputs, and safety and equipment health, remotely. Energy efficiency improved and stack wear was significantly reduced. The collaboration combines Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure Automation Expert, described as the world's first open, software-defined automation platform, with Microsoft Azure cloud, AI and edge infrastructure. Separating software from hardware lets customers run and reuse automation applications across different equipment, vendors and generations of infrastructure. Schneider's Industrial Copilot extends intelligence to the edge using Azure services for local inference and reinforcement, and automates engineering tasks such as writing control logic, configuring systems and navigating documentation. Engineering teams using the Copilot report up to 50% time savings, with production line changes that once took weeks now completed in hours.