General Electric: Utility-scale hybrid gas and battery storage plants are a clear route to reducing emissions

August 05, 2020 | Case Study

Hybridizing thermal power plants with different power generation technologies or energy storage is a potential route to improving operational efficiency, thus reducing emissions per MWh generated, and accessing additional revenue streams. While hybridization has found a home in microgrids, as a means to reduce fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions, retrofitting large-scale thermal power assets has been slower-moving. However, the falling cost of Li-ion batteries and more advanced digital operations and controls of both battery installations and thermal power plants have led to demonstration projects. In 2017, General Electric and Southern California Edison (SCE) partnered on installing Hybrid Enhanced Gas Turbine systems (Hybrid EGT) with 10 MW of Li-ion battery storage at two existing peaker plants.