Performance comparison of cold thermal storage for gas turbine inlet cooling with traditional energy storage technologies in current electricity markets

Abstract

In the current electricity grids, it is becoming pivotal to install a large amount of storage capacity in order to maximize the deployment of renewable energy sources, stabilize the grid, and mitigate electricity price volatility. Engineering research focused on improving storage technologies performance aiming to improve the round trip efficiency and increase the utilization opportunities. Besides storage implementation, power plant flexibility is pursued as well to support electricity grids in the transient stage towards a decarbonized energy mix. Recent studies have investigated the possibility of enhancing the flexibility of Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power plants by means of a heat pump and a cold thermal energy storage, this solution demonstrated a relevant potential, especially in those locations characterized by warm climates and volatile electricity markets. In such a situation is possible to fully exploit the cold thermal energy storage, decreasing the net power output, during storage charging in off-peak periods, and boosting it, through inlet cooling, during the most profitable periods. This paper performs a techno-economic comparison between cold thermal energy storage for gas turbines air inlet cooling and other established energy storage technologies (such as pumped hydro, batteries, compressed air, and pumper thermal storage) for time load shifting and energy arbitrage on the day ahead market. The analysis is based on Linear Programming (LP) and Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) models for the optimization of the dispatch. The impact of market parameters on storage technologies performance is investigated and discussed, selecting the best option for each considered scenario.