Swiss firm ABB is offering technology solutions that could help fix the country’s challenges in the development of charging infrastructure facilities for electric vehicles.
According to Engineer Ace Bisnar, ABB product marketing specialist, the company can viably aid the Philippines not just on support technologies for the rollout of EV charging facilities, but also in making sure that these solutions will reliably work.
He stressed that in the deployment of EV charging facilities is not just” putting the EV charger on the area, but also making sure that it is working 100 percent.”
The European firm specified that it can offer “electrical distribution solutions and battery energy storage systems” - which are in the suite of solutions to EV charging infrastructure, that in turn could ramp electric mobility (e-mobility) transition in the country.
As the company is already a renowned industry leader on EV infrastructure solutions, it noted that it is in the best position to help the Philippines realize its goal of electrifying at least 10-percent of its transport fleets in the medium- to long-term.
ABB said it developed “electrification solutions from EV chargers for the home to fast-charging roadside stations,” and these are seen as key solutions to zero-emission mobility into the future.
As laid down by Director Patrick Aquino of the Department of Energy-Energy Utilization and Management Bureau (DOE-EUMB), support infrastructure and standards remained as key challenges being sorted by government when it comes to commercial scale deployment of EV charging facilities.
He cited that under the re-adjusted Philippine Energy Plan (PEP), “EVs are expected to account for 10-percent of road transport vehicles by 2040 in the clean energy scenario,” but he admitted that the country’s performance on this had been less-than-desired.
In particular, the energy department lamented that the conversion of conventional vehicles to EVs had been apparently slow. Aquino even noted that from 2010 to 2019, only 11,950 EVs had been registered so far – and that was seen to account for just measly 0.9-percent if reckoned on the total number of vehicles registered in the Philippines.
The DOE is the agency in charge of developing the standards as well as policies that shall guide investors in setting up EV charging infrastructure facilities – as prescribed to be done both in private and public spaces.
The EV pathway of the country is in the queue as one of its solutions-contribution to abating climate change risks – and this is a policy step also perceived to be critically helpful in bringing down air pollution, especially in highly congested urban centers, including Metro Manila.
Aside from charging facilities, however, the DOE is also prodded on policy pronouncement on the sourcing of electricity supply that shall fuel the EVs – because carbon offsetting may not be as effective if vehicle electrification would be relying heavily on thermal power generation.