Sy pitches P700-B plan to reduce PH power costs

Tycoon Henry Sy Jr. has pitched a P700-billion intervention to help ease the country’s high electricity cost over the long term: allow energy superhighway National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to invest in a nationwide chain of battery energy storage system (BESS) to stabilize supply.

In a rare media chat, Sy, who chairs NGCP’s parent firm Synergy Grid & Development Philippines Inc., said on Thursday that the country should take advantage of the sharp decline in BESS prices to build a more resilient energy ecosystem, especially with the expected super El Niño in the coming year.

Subject to approval by regulators, NGCP plans to roll out an initial 850 mega-watts (MW) BESS by next year under the company’s “Project Airbag”, which the tycoon explained could strengthen grid flexibility, resilience and energy access.

“In the next five years, it could be 10,000 MW,” Sy said.

With a chain of BESS infrastructure that would link generation assets nationwide, Sy explained that NGCP could better channel energy from areas where there’s oversupply to areas that need it the most.

Sy estimated that each 100MW of the proposed BESS would cost at least P7 billion, which means the first 850-MW rollout will cost around P59.5 billion.

This also suggests that the long-term buildout of 10,000 MW will cost around P700 billion.

NGCP, often blamed by politicians for electricity price swings and shortfalls, is betting that this initiative to deploy BESS could provide fast-response storage and greater operating flexibility across the Philippine grid.

The immediate deployment of 850 MW is intended to buy time for the country to address immediate system pressures and prepare the grid for tighter supply conditions associated with the 2027 El Niño dry spell. It is also seen to address the current supply problem in the Visayas, which is driven by tight supply conditions and simultaneous generator outages.

As battery storage can respond much faster than new generation assets can be built, this plan is seen to give NGCP an additional transmission-side tool to support the system during short-duration shortages and disturbances by storing available electricity and releasing it when the system is under greater pressure.

But even beyond 2027, Sy said the rollout of 10,000 MW could be a lasting solution to lower the country’s high energy costs, a chronic disadvantage often cited by foreign investors looking for suitable sites for energy-intensive businesses like manufacturing.

Project Airbag is cited as a “practical intervention that NGCP can pursue within its own sphere while longer-term supply solutions are still being developed.”

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NGCP has identified initial areas where the BESS could be deployed.

“The rollout is not limited to the Visayas,” a project briefer read.

“El Niño creates a foreseeable risk of reduced hydroelectric output, particularly in areas where generation depends heavily on rainfall and reservoir levels. The risk is national, which supports the deployment of storage in other parts of the grid as well. Batteries can capture available electricity during periods of surplus, including daytime solar output, and release that stored energy during evening peaks, periods of reduced hydro output, or other tight system conditions.”

NGCP, however, stresses that the objective is not to concentrate or monopolize participation in the energy sector, but to disperse the burden of addressing the country’s supply requirements by enabling more participants and more sources to contribute.

“A more flexible transmission system can accommodate energy from a wider range of sources regardless of scale, location, or configuration — including large-scale generation, embedded generation, distributed energy resources, net-metered facilities, rooftop solar, and other emerging sources,” the briefer said.