Hybrid Power Plant Design

Hybrid power plants show promise to provide significant value to the electric grid system, especially as shares of renewable energy in systems increase from 10% to 20% or more and costs of wind, solar photovoltaics, and battery storage all continue to decrease. Many manufacturers and developers are proactively developing hybrid power plant strategies to ensure plant profitability in markets where it is important to provide energy that is more predictable and controllable, with higher capacity values, as well as various ancillary services to the grid system. However, there still are many questions about whether hybrid power plants make sense versus leaving it to the larger grid system to ensure low cost and reliable supply by engaging directly with all individual assets. Alternative opportunities exist by adding another technology to an existing interconnect, such as adding solar to wind.