BATTERY STORAGE San Miguel Corp. CEO Ramon Ang points to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla (in blue shirt) the battery energy storage system facility of his company’s power arm in Limay, Bataan, on Friday, March 31, 2023. The President says building many of this type of battery farms could be an alternative to large power plants, such as the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday said the Philippines may not have to build big power generators like the $2.3-billion Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) anymore as his administration was instead considering large energy storage facilities as alternatives in lowering electricity rates and addressing perennial power shortages in the country.
The President made the statement in Limay, Bataan, as he led the inauguration of the 1,000-megawatt nationwide battery energy storage system (BESS) network of San Miguel Global Power (SMGP), the largest such network in Southeast Asia which could store power to be used when demand is high.
READ: Bongbong Marcos says battery energy farms may be a ‘solution’ to PH energy needs
“Unfortunately, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was never in operation but you can see the advancements that we have now,” Marcos said. “That was a very, shall we say, involved kind of energy storage system because it was at a very large scale.”
“However … we no longer need to construct all of those facilities. We no longer need to put in that kind of infrastructure. All we need now are these battery farms that we are seeing today,” he said.
The corruption-tainted BNPP, which was built during his late father’s dictatorship, never went into operation due to safety concerns.
‘Full of promise’
In his first State of the Nation Address in July last year, the President said it was time for the government to reexamine the country’s approach and policy toward nuclear energy.
READ: PH ramping up talks on nuclear power deals
But in his speech on Friday at the Limay battery storage facility, about 55 kilometers from the mothballed nuclear plant also in the same town, Marcos said the government now “highly encourages and approves” projects like SMGP’s BESS.
SMGP is the power arm of San Miguel Corp., one of the country’s largest conglomerates.
READ: Reviving a relic of Marcos dictatorship
According to the President, many businessmen have been discouraged from investing in the Philippines due to concerns about unstable energy supply and high electricity cost.
He said the battery farms would be “part of the solution so that we can say that we are competitive now in terms of electricity rates and reliability and availability of power.”
The President pointed out that introducing a storage component into the overall energy infrastructure in the Philippines would help the country’s transition to clean energy.
SMGP’s BESS is “innovative” and “full of promise,” Marcos said.
“It is safe, has zero noise pollution, zero carbon emissions, zero water extraction, and generates zero waste. It also remedies the challenge with wider adoption of renewable sources, which is intermittence,” he said.
BESS technology
“That is why it is extremely encouraging for those of us who are always trying to find ways to: one, increase the supply of power; secondly, decrease the cost of power; and thirdly, improve the mix of traditional sources of power and renewable sources of power,” he added.
Given the increasing generation of renewable energy in the country, Marcos said it would be vital for the government to advance and incorporate an energy storage system (ESS) in its overall energy infrastructure.
“Not only will we be able to generate sufficient, reliable and clean energy, leading to more affordability of energy, and of course, generate jobs for our people—green jobs—in the process,” he said.
Marcos said ESS holds many of the keys to the survival and self-sufficiency of the country.
SMGP first ventured into BESS technology in 2018 when it acquired the 10-MW Masinloc facility in Zambales province, the first of its kind in the country.
The world’s largest BESS facility is the 1,600-MW Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California developed by global power generation company Vistra Energy Corp. It began operations in 2021.
A BESS facility is used to store excess power from power plants during off-peak hours.
Once electricity demand increases, the facilities load the stored power back into the grid to augment supply and prevent outages.
It works like a giant uninterruptible power supply (UPS) commonly used in offices and homes which could provide electricity automatically or on demand when an outage occurs due to accidents or weather disturbances and the like.
Ang: A major step
“This technology represents a major step toward meeting our country’s socioeconomic goals sustainably,” said SMC president and CEO Ramon Ang.
“In fact,” he added, “together with other industry players, we can collectively build 5,000 MW of BESS facilities to support peak supply requirements and achieve energy security in the coming years.” SMGP’s BESS network is composed of 32 battery storage facilities across the country.
According to SMGP, building 1-megawatt storage capacity could cost $500,000.
The Limay facility looks like a sprawling container yard with more than a dozen storage hubs made of shipping containers painted red and white. It has a capacity of 50 MW.
With a storage capacity of 40 MW at another location in the province, SMGP’s Bataan BESS has a total capacity of 90 MW that could be tapped by the Luzon grid.
Available supply
The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines said the available power supply in the Luzon grid on Friday was 11,417 MW and demand was 10,420 MW.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, which operates, develops and maintains the country’s state-owned power grid, had projected a peak demand of 13,125 MW for the Luzon grid this year.
According to Ang, the BESS network could enable the integration of capacity from small- to medium-scale clean energy sources into the grid, and help encourage more investments in renewables.
Data from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis show that coal still provides the majority, or 57 percent, of the Philippines’ power. It said renewables contributed 21 percent while natural gas accounted for 19 percent.
The Department of Energy is aiming to increase the share of renewables to the generation mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 40 percent by 2040.
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