Combined Cycle Gas Turbines, CCGTs, are oftenconsidered as the bridging technology to a decarbonized energysystem thanks to their high exploitation rate of the fuel energeticpotential. At present time in most European countries, however,revenues from the electricity market on their own are insufficientto operate existing CCGTs profitably, also discouraging newinvestments and compromising the future of the technology. Inaddition to their high efficiency, CCGTs offer ancillary servicesin support of the operation of the grid such as spinning reserveand frequency control, thus any potential risk of plantdecommissioning or reduced investments could translate into arisk for the well-functioning of the network. To ensure thereliability of the electricity system in a transition towards ahigher share of renewables, the economic sustainability ofCCGTs must be preserved, for which it becomes relevant tomonetize properly the ancillary services provided. In this paper,an accurate statistical analysis was performed on the day-ahead,intra-day, ancillary service, and balancing markets for the wholeItalian power-oriented CCGT fleet. The profitability of 45 realproduction units, spread among 6 market zones, was assessed onan hourly basis considering local temperature, specific plantlayouts, and off-design performance. The assessment revealedthat net income from the ancillary service market doubled, onaverage, the one from the day-ahead energy market. It wasobserved that to be competitive in the ancillary services marketCCGTs are required to be more flexible in terms of ramp rates,minimum environmental loads, and partial load efficiencies.This paper explores how integrating a Heat Pump and a ThermalEnergy Storage within a CCGT could allow improving itscompetitiveness in the ancillary services market, and thus itsprofitability, by means of implementing a model of optimaldispatch operating on the ancillary services market