The increasing electricity generation from fluctuating renewable sources leads to new challenges for the electricity grid and the conventional power generation; in addition to the use of energy storages to balance production and demand in the electricity grid, fast and flexible cycling thermal power plants are getting more and more important. These fast and flexible cycling thermal power plants use chemical energy storages (fuels – e.g. natural gas, biomass). Therefore they have the ability to generate electricity and power on-demand so they can contribute to a stable electricity grid today and in the future. The goal of the project is to survey and evaluate current and possible future fast and flexible cycling thermal power plants (e.g. gas power plant, combined-cycle power plants, cogeneration unit (e.g. stirling engines, gas engines)) and their fuel-options by a technical, economical, ecological and social evaluation by setting up applications examples (40-50 examples). Furthermore technical and regulatory requirements for accessing the electricity grid will be evaluated, as well as possible new applications in the future (e.g. centralised vs. decentralised generation, thermal energy storages combined with a CHP-Plant in a district heating system, upgrading existing technologies). Last but not least the most interesting prospects for fast and flexible cycling thermal power plants will be identified and recommendations for relevant stakeholders in the Austrian energy industry will be set up.