The increasing share of electricity produced from renewable energy sources (RES), with the consequent strong penetration in the current energy network, is causing a growing need of balancing power to compensate power supply from such fluctuating sources. For these reasons, nowadays the power plants are running more often at part-load providing ancillary services and sustaining the grid operability. Therefore, an increase in efficiency during part-load operation impacts positively the year-round efficiency. A possible solution, studied in the framework of PUMP-HEAT H2020 Project for flexibility enhancement, is characterized by the intake conditioning. Such concept, after a general introduction, is here applied to increase the temperature of the intake of power oriented combined cycle (PO-CCGT), mitigating the Gas Turbine off-design and resulting in an enhanced efficiency. In this work, a statistical analysis of actual PO-CCGT production profiles and climatic data is performed considering the Italian context, to assess the potential of this practice under the economic and environmental point of view.
