Performance and economic of the thermal energy storage systems to enhance the peaking capacity of the gas turbines

There are many gas turbines in Iran favored for coping with the peak electricity demand of the utilities due to their specific properties. However, due to the high ambient temperature in the hot seasons, air mass flow, power output and efficiency of gas turbines decrease considerably. To solve this problem, the inlet air to the gas turbines should be cooled. This paper presents an overview of using the thermal energy storage for combustion turbine inlet air-cooling (TESTIAC) to increase the peaking capacity of it. Several cases of the chilled water and ice storage systems have been studied for the capacity enhancement in Kish power plant. The best case has been selected by economical studies. This study shows that the combustion turbine capacity enhancement will be around 13.6% by using this method. The internal rate of return will be 27.3%. The cost of electricity (COE) is calculated to be 5.36 Cents/kW h which is less than the current price of electricity in Iran on-peak hours.