Shell powers refinery with solar-gas-battery hybrid technology

By Myrna M.Velasco – October 7, 2019, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation comes “clean” on its electricity usage at its 110,000 barrels per-day Tabangao refinery in Batangas via its deployment of hybrid technology that amalgamates the use of solar, battery energy storage system (BESS) and natural gas.

Pilipinas Shell President and CEO Cesar G. Romero

The integrated energy solution for the company’s refinery is up for completion next year – with the solar farm development kicking off next month; while the 3.0 megawatt-hour battery storage will be installed second quarter of 2020.

As asserted by Shell Philippines President and Chairman Cesar G. Romero, the deployment of such solution at its refinery “is the result of collaboration between Pilipinas Shell and Royal Dutch’s Shell’s New Energies business,” the latter being its parent firm headquartered in the Netherlands.

The oil firm emphasized that upon the project’s full completion, “the integrated energy system is expected to produce approximately 2,400-megawatt hours of power annually,” which shall be enough to energize more than 850 homes or one that is comparable to the size of a small barangay or village.

Romero stressed that the battery-solar-gas solution will be one “to showcase Shell’s aspiration to thrive in the energy business transition and at the same time demonstrate opportunities to unlock value between conventional and new energy sources.”

Core advantage of this model of electricity needs sourcing, according to Romero, shall include improvements on energy efficiency at its refinery, which in turn could underpin its plan of exporting excess production.

And since the battle lines in the energy sector had already been drawn into the global climate challenge as set forth by the Paris accord, Pilipinas Shell indicated that this energy usage shift will yield carbon dioxide offset of 8,760 tons annually, which in parallelism could be equivalent to planting more than half a million trees.