Enfinity eyes venture into battery storage

MANILA, Philippines - Enfinity Philippines Renewable Sources Inc. is planning to enter the battery storage business in three years to complement its planned portfolio of 500 megawatts of solar power projects.

In a recent interview, Enfinity Philippines president Dennis C. Ibarra said the battery technology is improving and costs are seen to go down.

He said the technology is already working in other countries, like India and China.

“It’s possible to go into renewable energy only in the future because battery technologies are getting better,” he said.

“In three years, we’ll not just have battery back-up but battery primary, and so the grid will become the back up,” Ibarra added.

By then, Enfinity Philippines would be a main user of battery energy storage, Ibarra said.

“We are already testing them, the battery storage at the grid level, at the MW level,” he said.

Battery energy storage stores power from renewable energy such as solar and makes this available for customers even when the main source is not available.

With the influx of RE investments in the country, the Energy Regulatory Commission came out with a circular classifying battery energy storage as a new source of ancillary services, frequency control ancillary services, particularly contingency reserve and secondary reserve.

For this year, Enfinity Philippines is targeting to have a total of 120 MW of solar projects, of which 100 MW are solar power plants and 20 MW from rooftop projects.

The company is also targeting to put up 500 MW of solar projects over the next three years.

So far, Enfinity Philippines is currently putting up four solar plants in Concepcion, Tarlac; Clark, Pampanga;  Digos, Davao; and in Cavite.

“Then in Clark, we’re going to start talking with Tarelco (Tarlac Electric Cooperative Inc.) about this. In the future, within three years is our plan to put batteries,” he added.