When dealing with rSOCs, the most important parameter to consider is the roundtrip efficiency, which is a measure of the efficiency of the system considering both the charge (SOEC) and discharge (SOFC) preocesses. The roundtrip efficiency for the single cell can be defined as:
where  is the charge supplied or consumed during the reactions, and  is the operating voltage. If the assumption of no current or reactants leakage is made, the exchanged charges during the reactions can be assumed to be equal. Then, the roundtrip efficiency can be written as:
To maximize the roundtrip efficiency, the two operating voltages must be as close as possible. This condition can be achieved by operating the rSOC with low current densities in both modalities. In SOFC mode this is easily pursuable, while in SOEC mode a too low voltage may lead to an endothermic operation. If the operating voltage in SOEC mode is lower than the thermoneutral voltage, additional heat sources at high temperature are needed to sustain the reaction. These could come from waste industrial heat or from nuclear reactors. If not easily accessible, though, electrical heating is necessary. This can be supplied by external additions or by operating the cell with an operating voltage higher than the thermoneutral one. Both solutions, though, would inevitably lower the roundtrip efficiency of the rSOC. For this reason, in reversible operation, the thermoneutral voltage poses significant limitations in achieving high roundtrip efficiencies.
On the other hand, the thermoneutral voltage is greatly affected by the reaction chemistry. It has been demonstrated that increasing the yield of methane in the electrolysis operation can substantially decreases the thermoneutral voltage and heat demand of the reaction. For conventional electrolyzers (operating at atmospheric pressure and 750°C), the methane content in the products is very low. It can be increased effectively by lowering the operating temperature to 600°C and increasing the operating pressure up to 10 bar. For example, the thermoneutral voltage is equal to 1.27 V at 750°C and 1 bar, while it becomes equal to 1.07 V at 600°C and 10 bar. In these conditions, the rSOC can even be operated in exothermic mode at reduced voltages, permitting to produce additional heat at high temperature. This result becomes very helpful in the design of high efficiency rSOC systems for energy storage purposes.