President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. inaugurated on Friday the San Miguel Global Power Battery Energy Storage Systems Facilities (BESS) in Limay, Bataan.
The BESS is the first of its kind in the Philippines and one of the largest integrated grid-scale battery energy storage projects in the world.
In his remarks during the event, the President commended San Miguel, saying introducing a storage component into the overall energy infrastructure provides the crucial support mechanism that will optimize these resources, make them more efficient and reliable.
“With this technology in place, storage of power is made possible. Power could be stored when not needed or in times of oversupply, and released whenever required or when there is undersupply,” the chief executive said.
San Miguel Group’s 50-MW Battery Energy Storage Systems Facilities Bataan is one of the company’s 32 facilities with a combined capacity of 1,000MW that it is building and targeting to complete by the end of this year.
Ramon Ang, San Miguel CEO, said BESS can have a transformative impact on the Philippine economy and the lives of Filipinos.
Strategically located in various parts of the country, Ang said BESS facilities can instantly increase peak systems supply to meet the country’s post-pandemic growing energy demand.
With BESS providing a significant portion of peak supply, existing base load power plants can run continuously and operate more efficiently, resorting to lower electricity rates for Filipino consumers, according to Ang.
“Equally important, our facilities combined can support the integration of over 5,000MW of renewable power sources into the grid,” Ang said.
“They can store excess energy from traditional and renewable energy during low demand and release it back to the grid when demand increase or peaking,” Ang added.
The solution that the country needs to help address its most pressing energy concern is already at its doorstep, Ang said, noting technology represents a major step towards meeting the Philippine socio economic goal sustainably.
And together with other industry players, Ang said the Philippines can collectively build 5,000MW of battery storage to support the peak demand requirement and achieve energy security in the coming years.
“We need to make sure that everyone regardless of location and socioeconomic status will have access [to] reliable, affordable electricity as part of the legacy of Marcos administration,” he said. #
