<p>Since hybrid power plants (HPPs) play an intensive role in the energy supply balance of future energy systems, there is today an increased attention on co-located wind-battery HPPs both in industry and academia. However, the profitability of HPPs in sequential electricity markets to overcome initial investment costs has not been yet well examined, especially with respect to balancing services provision. This article proposes a novel energy management system (EMS) for optimal participation of wind-battery HPPs in two sequential electricity markets, namely in spot market and balancing market. The methodology consists of three optimization models, which allow HPPs to achieve energy arbitrage, to provide balancing services, and to reduce real-time imbalance costs. Furthermore, the profitability of HPPs in future (2030) energy scenario is analyzed based on the new designed and developed EMS taking balancing service into account. The results of the overplanting case show that HPPs operated based on the proposed EMS achieve net present value 3.6 times as high as sole operation in spot market.</p>