To support the growth of renewable energy (RE) technologies in the country, Ayala-led ACEN Corp. believes that the ideal ratio of battery storage to solar capacity should be between 30 and 40 percent.
In an ambush interview last week, Eric Francia, president and chief executive officer of ACEN, shared that solar installations should allocate a significant portion to storage.
“I think the ratio that we typically use, but not engraved in stone, whenever you have solar installation, ideally, somewhere in the 30 to 40 percent of that solar installation should be devoted to batteries,” he told reporters.
“Given that there [are] currently around six gigawatts (GW) of solar currently being built in the country right now, mostly in Luzon… Maybe a third of that should be complemented by two GW of battery storage,” Francia added.
Given the challenges in increasing solar power capacity in the country, he emphasized the need for a proactive government strategy to reduce the risk of grid imbalances.
“I’m hoping that the Department of Energy (DOE) could preempt that by crafting a policy on standalone battery storage. That could really be the mitigant for potential constraints and grid imbalances [or] production imbalances,” the ACEN chief said, mentioning that there could be both oversupply and supply shortages at the same time.
Furthermore, he explained that there are solar plants in the country that are curtailed or have not been producing to their full potential due to grid limitations.
“We have solar projects operating that are curtailed, and in the Philippines, these are not very big capacities, but they are curtailed anyhow… So what do you do? There are many projects around the Philippines, and in the future, there will be.”
He stressed that there are about six GW of RE currently being built and will need support to overcome power hurdles and limitations.
“What would happen to those six GW? I won’t be surprised if some of them, or a good number of them, will be curtailed. That’s why I think you need to build an integrated renewable energy storage system (IRESS),” he said.
An IRESS is mostly focused on solar and wind to ensure stable and reliable supply, despite their intermittent nature.
Additionally, Francia sought a structural shift for IRESS, stating that, “If you already have solar [projects] there, it should be a different framework, which is you want to be able to encourage the investment in standalone battery storage.”
According to him, standalone batteries can be built near substations that need to address constraints caused by excess solar generation.
“If you have a standalone battery near a substation that is limited in terms of transmission capacity because of excess solar generation, you can absorb it as a mode during the day and then release it at night,” he said.
“Address the pertinent issues of the solar plants around that substation, so you can strategically locate battery storage if it’s on a standalone basis, either near a substation that’s facing a lot of curtailment, or near a solar plant that’s being curtailed, or behind the meter.”