Assessment of sector-coupling technologies in combination with battery energy storage systems for frequency containment reserve

•Technology-independent analysis of sector-coupling technologies with BESS to provide FCR.•Different sector-coupling technologies are represented by investment and variable cost.•For all hybrid system a BESS capacity of 350 kWh to provide FCR with perfect foresight is sufficient.•Supplementing of existing plants with BESS for FCR by lowering its power is economically viable.•Build of new hybrid systems for exclusively FCR performance is highly cost-dependant. The aim of this analysis is to identify promising uses cases for hybrid concepts consisting of sector-coupling technologies and battery energy storage systems (BESS) for frequency containment reserve (FCR). The description of these hybrid concepts is ultimately based on two cost parameters - investment and variable costs. A technical analysis of a single technology with its multitude of technical parameters is explicitly not the focus of this work. The analysis is based on a technical economic study, which analyses the optimal operating strategy and battery dimensioning, followed by an economic analysis and a comparison with a standalone reference system. The analysis reveals that, independently of its costs and with respect to actual FCR revenues, supplementing an existing sector-coupling technology with a BESS to provide FCR by lowering its power amount always generates an added value. In comparison the economic advantages of building a new hybrid system, that provides FCR by increasing the power amount of the sector-coupling technology from still stand, are cost-dependant. Decreasing the BESS investment costs functions positively in favour of a hybrid system that lowers its power amount, and has a negative effect on a hybrid system that increases it.