The paper deals with the topical issue of providing the base load for the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the nighttime off-peak load hours. To find a solution to this issue, we analyzed energy storage technologies, such as hydroelectric power stations. Since the construction of this type of station is associated with various risks (technical, environmental, seismic, etc.), their deployment in the immediate vicinity of the Near Nuclear Power Plants is unacceptable. This implies the tariffs for the supply of power from the grid transmission system may exceed the nuclear generating costs by 2 or 3 times, and significantly affect the cost for the produced peak energy and competitive advantages of these stations. As more competitive technology of electric energy storage, the paper reviews the system based on utilizing hydrogen energy facilities with hydrogen and oxygen produced by water electrolysis due to excess power from nuclear power plants in the nighttime. The key advantage of these facilities is location in the vicinity of NPPs with the possibility of charging at the cost of the NPP energy. At the same time, hydrogen and oxygen production and their further utilization in the NPP steam cycle has the recurrent nature and connected with the daily startup and shutdown procedures of the main facilities. Thus, the aim of this research is to determine the life cycle of the main hydrogen energy facility under cyclic loads. The fatigue fracture theory is applied to analyze the performance of startup/shutdown cycles in the main hydrogen energy facility in combination with the NPP. We have conducted the estimation of fatigue crack growth depending on the load frequency for the critical components of electrolysis plants, compressors, metal hydrogen and oxygen storage tanks, as well as hydrogen-oxygen combustion chambers. The paper focuses on the impact of hydrogen corrosion on the rate of fatigue crack growth and proposes criterion defining the number of cycles occurred prior to the fracture extension process. Based on the criterion of maximum cycles prior to the fraction extension process, we have defined the boundaries for effective performance of the main hydrogen energy facility. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.