ABB eyes partnerships to provide tech for microgrids

ABB, INC. is looking to partner with energy developers in remote areas to provide its technology in the operation of microgrids, an official of the company said.

“There are several companies now looking into the SPUG (small power utilities group) islands. We’re working through them not specifically doing parallel developments. We’re working with this existing network and supply them with technology,” Rucelino R. Musong, the country business development and channel partner manager of ABB, said in an interview.

The local unit of Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation ABB Group has found a business potential in micgrogrids, which recently gained the interest of electric cooperatives and private businesses in view of the government’s drive towards total electrification by 2022.

“We’re looking into several projects right now. We’re exploring at this point,” Mr. Muson said.

He said the projects are in remote areas, or what the National Power Corp. calls SPUG areas. These are mostly islands that are not connected to the national grid — or the interconnected system of transmission lines, towers, substations and related assets.

“We could not disclose yet the specific projects but usually they’re located in remote areas, fishing villages,” he said. “We do have some in the Visayas and also in Mindanao — projects that we are looking into.”

The move towards microgrids is an expansion for ABB, which considers privately owned National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) as its biggest market in the country.

“ABB is traditionally more on the grid side. We’re only slowly venturing into the residential side, commercial side,” he said. “[NGCP is] our biggest customer I think for this year — about 40% of ABB [total revenue] right now are projects from NGCP.”

Mr. Musong describes ABB in the Philippines as more of a technology supplier and an integrator of different systems.

“We integrate different sources of power, so you have wind, solar, diesel or whatever. We put in the control systems to choose which is the cheapest power that you could use to supply to your load. That’s basically the microgrid system,” he said.

Mr. Musong said a “notable” project of ABB is the installation of energy storage systems that connect to the grid and control the fluctuations in power supply because of the entry of renewable energy sources, many of which are intermittent.

“We have this problem with the grid with the increase of renewable energy. There’s a fluctuation, sometimes there’s no power from these sources so you need the batteries to maintain the frequency of the grid,” he said.

ABB works with local partners, some of them start-up companies, that provide ancillary services. These services are offered by power generators to help ensure the stability of the grid by reserving and allocating generating capacity that can be quickly dispatched by NGCP during imbalances in the power system. These imbalances happen when some power plants trip or when capacity is deficient in some areas.

“Some of them (local partners) are already in the power generation side but are also venturing into this new niche market, which is the ancillary services market,” Mr. Musong said.

“It’s like a big UPS (uninterruptible power supply). If one source goes down then this battery kicks in to continue maintaining the frequency of the grid,” he said.

ABB’s “open” technology allows its components to be connected to other brands, making it a good fit for systems built by different providers.

“The thing about our technology is it’s agnostic. So it’s open protocol,” he said. “You’re not tied up with a brand or whatever. As long as you see the value of using our technology, then it’s fine.”