Economic analysis of energy storages integrated into combined-cycle power plants

As energy supplies shift towards renewable energy, the requirements in terms of power plant operation are increasing. The volatility of renewables has to be balanced by the conventional power plants in order to provide a secure supply. Therefore, the conventional power plants need to act flexible in the market. To improve the flexibility of operation, the integration of energy storage devices proves to be helpful in terms of increasing the ramp-rates and reducing the minimum-load. A valuation tool has been developed to evaluate the improvement of flexibility through various types of storage from a techno-economical perspective, based on Germany’s day-ahead and intra-day market data between 2017 and 2020. The results show that pumped hydro storage systems and power-to-gas systems can raise the profitability of the plant, while other storage types like CAES or LAES require additional market opportunities to be utilized in order to be competitive. Battery storage systems can help to reduce the ramp time of the plant and allow it to operate on the control power market. However they are not suitable for the day-ahead and intra-day market     «

As energy supplies shift towards renewable energy, the requirements in terms of power plant operation are increasing. The volatility of renewables has to be balanced by the conventional power plants in order to provide a secure supply. Therefore, the conventional power plants need to act flexible in the market. To improve the flexibility of operation, the integration of energy storage devices proves to be helpful in terms of increasing the ramp-rates and reducing the minimum-load. A valuatio...     »