Palawan hybrid-power facility set to start commercial operation in Q2

By Lenie Lectura - January 24, 2019

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/01/24/palawan-hybrid-power-facility-set-to-start-commercial-operation-in-q2/

THE planned hybrid-power facility in Palawan, which combines a 1.4-megawatt peak solar photovoltaic (PV) plant with a 2.3-megawatt-per-hour battery storage system and 1.2-MW diesel generators will be ready for commercial operation in the second quarter of this year.

“This is an important contribution to green-growth development and the fight against climate change. The project should be operational in the second quarter of 2019,” renewable-energy (RE) developer Sabang Renewable Energy Corp. (SREC) said. The project broke ground in April 2018.

The solar PV/Battery system enables SREC to provide an average of 50-percent clean energy to the grid. Also, the Philippine government will save P298 million to P527 million in subsidy meant for rural electrification projects.

This is because the solar and batteries components in the hybrid system will reduce diesel consumption and make power cost less dependent on the price of oil. These savings will enable the government to accelerate its rural electrification program while promoting RE.

SREC’s hybrid power-generation technology will not only provide round the clock electricity, but will also avoid about 25,700-metrictons of CO2-equivalent emissions over a 20-year lifetime. The total carbon avoided can be compared to saving approximately 9.1 million liters of gasoline or 7,136 hectares of carbon-sequestering forests.

SREC is a joint venture company of Singapore-based WEnergy Global Pte Ltd., Gigawatt Power Inc. and Vivant Corp. WEnergy, ICMG Partners Pte Ltd. and Greenway Grid Global (GGG) Pte Ltd. have formed a Singapore-based investment entity of $60 million that will finance and operate RE projects in Southeast Asia.

This newly formed Singapore company, CleanGrid Partners Pte. Ltd., aims to build and manage a portfolio of electrification projects valued at about $100 million within three to four years.

WEnergy Global, one of the principal shareholders of the new company, has already set the stage by being an initiator for a microgrid project in Palawan, to be part of this electrification plan.

CleanGrid Partners is aiming at enabling a rapid replication of the Palawan project in several other places in Southeast Asia to meet the demand for off-grid and decentralized electrification.