SN ABOITIZ POWER’S MAGAT BESS GOES ONLINE

February 17, 2024 Community Billboard

SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP) Group’s first energy storage project, the 24-megawatt Magat battery energy storage system (BESS), started commercial operations in the reserve market on January 26, 2024. This marks SNAP’s first venture into non-hydro, complementary technologies. “New and complementary technologies like BESS will help facilitate the country’s energy transition. We are excited and optimistic about the new paths this opens up for us, especially in Magat, where we also have the 200kW pilot floating solar,” SNAP President and CEO Joseph Yu said.

The project, which broke ground in April 2022, completed construction in July 2023 and concluded testing and commissioning with the grid operator in December 2023. SNAP secured the Provisional Authority to Operate from the Energy Regulatory Commission on January 17. The Magat BESS, which is to be used primarily for ancillary services in the Luzon grid, utilizes liquidcooled lithium-ion batteries and is connected to the grid via a 230-kV power transformer. It is co-located with SNAP’s Magat hydroelectric power plant in Ramon, Isabela.

SNAP took over the ownership and operations of the Magat hydropower plant on April 26, 2007 following a successful bid under the government’s privatization program. The facility, which has a nameplate capacity of 360 MW and maximum capacity of 388 MW, underwent half-life refurbishment in 2014. In 2017, the company inaugurated the 8.5 Maris hydro, and two years later, piloted the 200-KW floating solar on the Magat reservoir, its first non-hydro RE project.