- The DOE has been closely monitoring innovations in the energy storage development, says Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla.
- The fusion of RE and energy storage is seen as the most tenable alliance that could dismantle the dominance of traditional fossil fuels in the power mix.
- This will also manage the intermittency of solar and wind generation and in the process, alleviate the overall strain in the power infrastructure network of the country.
The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to be more flexible and adjust the policy framework for the investments and deployment of the country’s energy storage systems.
Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla said — “we can make the adjustments, but we just wanted to be able to move faster given the present technologies available.”
In a Circular issued by the DOE in April this year, it classified at least four energy storage technologies to be covered by the existing policy framework – primarily those on battery energy storage system (BESS), compressed air energy storage (CAES), flywheel energy storage (FES) and pumped storage hydropower (PSH).
The secretary, nevertheless, noted that the DOE has been closely monitoring innovations in the energy storage development domain — including those on hydrogen as well as sodium-based energy storage systems which are being touted as the next phase of revolution in renewable energy (RE) storage.
The fusion of RE and energy storage is seen as the most tenable alliance that could dismantle the dominance of traditional fossil fuels in the power mix. This is an appealing solution to manage the intermittency of solar and wind generation and in the process, it would alleviate overall strain in the country’s power infrastructure network.
Denmark Ambassador to the Philippines Franz-Michael Mellbin similarly indicated that when it comes to the deployment of energy storage “maybe the government should consider being more flexible.”
He highlighted that “storage technology is developing very quickly; so remaining flexible in a world where technology develops very quickly is important.”
The ambassador opined that similar to the diversification being pushed in power generation, it is likewise essential that such concept of diversity be embraced in the deployment of energy storage technologies.
“Just as you don’t want electricity system to be just on one kind of power source, but having various inputs; this is also true for battery storage because you just don’t need them for just one application,” he stressed.
Mellbin emphasized “there may be other solutions – like sodium storage which is a new technology, and is now being built in Denmark. And this allows large-scale storage in places where you may not have, for example, opportunity for hydro storage and where battery storage would simply would not be large enough because of the price or scale – so, getting the right storage system for a particular kind of situation will actually be important.”
He added that it is highly significant for the Philippines to optimize investments not just in the renewable energy space but also storage as its technology coupling – and these in turn must be integrated in the forward buildup of smart energy system for the country.
