SINGAPORE—Energy transition trailblazer ACEN Corporation of the Ayala group will schedule a study to dissect and assess options for the ‘asset repurposing’ of its 246-megawatt South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation (SLTEC) coal plant. 

The plant will be retired by 2030, way ahead of its full operating lifecycle as anchored on the transition credits prescription under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

In an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Ecosperity Week here, ACEN President and CEO Eric Francia noted that the initial possibilities they’re looking at would be to convert the site to accommodate energy storage installations and earmark the remaining parcels of land to industrial estate development or realignment as a manufacturing facility site.

The Ayala firm CEO similarly indicated that an essential part of the ‘just energy transition’ roadmap they will be pursuing would be reskilling and upskilling the plant workers so they can be reassigned or placed in jobs at their other power plants.

“The other initiative that we’re going through in the ‘just transition’ is we have to come up with an asset repurposing plan. We need to have a study - that’s why it’s important to have partners like Keppel Ltd. that has experience in real estate and industrial estate, etc,” he stressed.

He said the plan at this stage is “we will look at energy-related assets or use cases; it could be battery storage.”

If the alternative plan could be executed over a longer time duration, the company may likewise test out an opportunity for ‘green molecules’—which could be akin to the technology coupling of gas and hydrogen; although Francia qualified that this may not likely be feasible with the plant’s retirement timeframe around 2030.

“If this would be a longer period, longer timeline, maybe green molecules – but 2030, I don’t think it’s feasible. So, we’ll look at battery storage as possible option for asset repurposing,” he emphasized.

As technically-defined, ‘asset repurposing’ entails a process of converting or reusing the existing infrastructure, land as well as equipment of a decommissioned coal-fired generating facility for new, economically and environmentally sustainable developments – it is a way to maximize the value of the ‘legacy asset’ instead of just totally demolishing everything in the project site.

Francia opined that repurposing a coal plant into an energy storage system is already a tested formula in Australia, one of the energy markets that has phased out its aging coal plants and replaced them with renewables.

“So energy storage, that’s what they do in Australia. The older coal plants there, they get repurposed to big battery as an example because the grid connectivity is already there, so it shouldn’t be wasted,” he pointed out.

As to how big the energy storage system that shall be set up by ACEN, he asserted that it shall be part of the study to be undertaken.

“At least my hypothesis., the most feasible ‘use case’ would be battery energy storage, I’m not saying that’s for sure, but that will be subject to study. Then that will still leave a lot of land area unutilized, so it could be manufacturing plant because the SLTEC plant is contiguous to an industrial park, so it would be an expansion area for the industrial park; or to be a stand-alone manufacturing facility,” he stated.

Beyond physical conversion of the plant to other value-creating and transition-aligned facilities, he reiterated that another major focus of the company shall be re-training the plant workers so they would remain employable either in the energy sector or in other industries, because that is a critical element of ‘just transition.”

A ‘just energy transition’ primarily implies that a shift from fossil fuels to clean energy shall be done in a fair and inclusive manner – primarily safeguarding the rights and livelihoods of workers and communities affected by the change, that way, no one gets left behind in that greener future journey.

“Part of the just transition is making sure that the employees are reskilled to the extent that we can reassign them to our other RE projects – we’re already doing that,” he said.

Francia added “we have a program because we still have that linkage with the operations team of SLTEC, so we are actually creating these green opportunities for the people of SLTEC. And then we’ll also reskill or upskill where necessary the other coal plant employees.”