• Southern California Edison President Ron Nichols speaking to audience on World's First Battery-Gas Turbine Hybrid. General Electric and Southern California Edison, an Edison International company Monday, April 17, 2017 unveiled the world's first battery-gas turbine hybrid system at Norwalk ceremony.
  • J. Grant McDaniel, Senior Project Manager General Electric, discussing General Electric LM6000 aero derivative gas turbine. General Electric and Southern California Edison, an Edison International company Monday, April 17, 2017 unveiled the world's first battery-gas turbine hybrid system in Norwalk. This system called the LM6000 Hybrid Electric Gas Turbine increasing renewable energy capacity by providing quick start, fast ramping capabilities when they are needed. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
  • Control area and building that contains 2,304 Lithium Ion batteries to store energy.General Electric and Southern California Edison, an Edison International company Monday, April 17, 2017 unveiled the world's first battery-gas turbine hybrid system in Norwalk. This system called the LM6000 Hybrid Electric Gas Turbine increasing renewable energy capacity by providing quick start, fast ramping capabilities when they are needed. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
  • A building housing 2,304 Lithium Ion batteries with controls to store electrical energy. General Electric and Southern California Edison, an Edison International company Monday, April 17, 2017 unveiled the world's first battery-gas turbine hybrid system in Norwalk. This system called the LM6000 Hybrid Electric Gas Turbine increasing renewable energy capacity by providing quick start, fast ramping capabilities when they are needed. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

NORWALK – Southern California Edison launched the world’s first hybrid battery and gas turbine power plants Monday that will provide cleaner stopgap power during hot summer months when electricity demand soars.

Officials at an unveiling ceremony in Norwalk called the new plant “the world’s first” and said a second hybrid plant was built in Rancho Cucamonga. Both went online March 30 and Southern California Edison is planning three more plants.

The two gas-turbine plants have been retrofitted with lithium ion battery technology that can power the plant instantaneously, reducing warm-up time to nearly zero seconds and dropping emissions by 60 percent. Ordinary gas-turbine plants that run only when needed can take up to 12 hours to ramp up, while spewing emissions that…