Aboitiz Power Corporation broke new ground on its 49-megawatt (MW) battery energy storage system (BESS) installation in the country, as it has pioneered this venture on a distinctive floating platform at its project site in Maco, Davao de Oro.
Therma Marine Inc. (TMI), a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power, announced the commercial operation of its first BESS project on Nov. 29 and regarded it as “a model for future battery investments and hybrid renewable energy projects.”
According to Emmanuel V. Rubio, president and CEO of Aboitiz Power, their company “sees battery technology as a great opportunity to address concerns about the reliability, affordability, and sustainability of energy supply.”
He qualified that through the project “we respond to the needs of our customers and communities while supporting economic growth by ensuring the stability of the grid.”
BESS is not just an innovative technology solution that can add up capacity to power supply, but it can also underpin reliability needs in an electricity system because it can provide ancillary services which are crucial in the operation of power grids.
For the BESS deployment of Aboitiz Power in Davao de Oro, it was emphasized that the facility “will complement TMI’s existing diesel engines by providing ancillary services to sustain the transmission capacity and energy that are essential in maintaining the power quality, reliability, and security of the Mindanao grid.”
Within a decade-stretch, the power firm had cast at least 12 BESS projects that could yield up to 248MW of capacity that can be lined up for regulating and contingency reserves in the power system.
At its commercial operation phase, Rubio reiterated that the Maco BESS facility “will help reinforce the Mindanao grid.”
The other BESS rollout of the Aboitiz group is in Northern Luzon via its 24MW facility sited adjacent to the Magat hydroelectric power plant in Ramon, Isabela, its joint venture with Norwegian company Scatec which is under corporate vehicle SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP).
The construction of the Magat BESS project kicked off around August this year and it will reach commercial operation date by the first quarter of 2024.
The BESS development paradigm being pursued by the Aboitiz group is a perfect technology coupling to its investment track on the renewable energy (RE) space which is its well-calculated strategy toward rebalancing its power generation portfolio.