First Balfour, EDC sign contract to build energy storage

By Alena Mae S. Flores – October 4, 2023, 8:15 pm
from manilastandard.net

First Balfour Inc. signed a contract with Energy Development Corp. (EDC) for its battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities with a combined capacity of 40 megawatts (MW).

First Balfour, the Lopez Group’s engineering and construction arm, said in a statement the project involves three standalone BESS projects co-located with EDC’s existing geothermal power plants in Sorsogon, Leyte and Negros Oriental.

The company will undertake engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) works for the balance of plant (BOP) and connection assets (CA) of the BESS facilities.

The BESS will be supplied by the leading global provider of energy storage products and services and optimization software for renewables and storage Fluence.

“As this is not the kind of project we typically bid for, the whole team had been very hands-on from conceptualization until contract closing. It was a new experience that I believe added to the competencies of our tender team,” First Balfour head of estimating Raymond Orbase said.

EDC’s BESS facilities will be used to store excess power from its geothermal plants and supply this stored energy when and where it is needed.

First Balfour said that by optimizing energy use, BESS technologies would help power the Philippines in its necessary transition to clean energy and are solid steps toward the realization of the First Philippine Holdings Corp.’s mission-purpose “to forge collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future.”

First Balfour  business development lead for BESS Ana Valeriano said the collaboration between the BD and estimating teams as well as the support departments had been instrumental to winning the project—a first in the company’s portfolio.

“I would like to recognize the hard work of all the members of our tender teams who, since November last year, have been diligently working and meeting tight deadlines to secure this contract,” Valeriano said.

EDC is First Gen’s renewable energy subsidiary, with over 1,480 MW of installed capacity, accounting for 20 percent of the country’s total installed RE capacity.

Its 1,185.40-MW geothermal portfolio accounts for 62 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity, making the Philippines the third largest geothermal producer in the world.