ABB reinforces operations efficiency of Quezon power plant
Global digital payments company Payoneer has registered a triple digit growth in monthly payment volume among its clients — mostly freelancers and outsourcing firms — here in the Philippines.
Without specifying any monetary value, Payoneer said it has experienced a 359 percent growth in monthly payment volume and a 375 percent growth in the number of active monthly users since it launched here in the Philippines last year.
Its billing service year-to-date payment volume, according to the company, is also 327 percent greater than the entire 2016 volume. Again, without specifying any particular amount of earnings.
“It has been a phenomenal year for Payoneer Philippines and we intend to duplicate, or even surpass, what we have achieved. Our growth means that the markets we serve are also growing. We want to maintain this upward momentum and continue helping the online outsourcing and export markets in the Philippines,” said Miguel Warren, Payoneer Regional Head for Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
As of now, the New York-based global financial technology firm is also setting its sights on other industries beyond their core market of freelancers.
The expansion plan entails serving BPOs (business process outsourcing), e-Commerce sellers and online SMEs (small medium enterprises).
To support this move, the Philippine office has already started conducting roadshows in key cities such as Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan De Oro, Palawan and Iligan.
“We are committed to making a difference by empowering not just freelancers but also e-Commerce sellers, BPOs, and entrepreneurs. We can support them by offering tools and secure payment solutions that will enable them to participate in the global economy and help them maximize their income-generating potential,” Warren said.
The company is also launching Australian and Canadian currency receiving accounts to complement the other currency accounts it provides its customers including USD, EUR, GBP, CNY and JPY.
This will translate to lower cost of money remittance between Australian clients and Filipino freelancers and SMEs. (MBM)
With its “Ability Symphony Plus” training simulator digital solution, European firm ABB will be reinforcing the operational efficiencies of the 460-megawatt Quezon power plant sited in Mauban town of Quezon province.
ABB said this new training simulator will “upskill operators at plant” with an upgraded human-machine interface via its Ability Symphony Plus control system.
As noted by Kevin Kosisko, managing director of ABB’s power generation business unit, they will be banking on their company’s “strong track record in providing expertise and services to help operators handle the complexity of their power plants.”
He added their solution-offer to Quezon Power is “a collaborative approach, which is in line with our ABB Ability offering,” that will be key “in supporting the customer’s decision making and performance.”
ABB’s scope of work on this project covers design and engineering, as well as installation, commissioning, and training.
Frank Thiel, managing director of Quezon Power Phils. Ltd. Co., explained that with this ABB-underpinned training simulator, “our current operators can train and re-train to sharpen their skills, and thus be ready for any eventuality.”
That way, he noted that they will then be able to “respond better to system disturbances, grid off-sets or any other upsetting event that could potentially cause the unit to trip.”
It is worth noting that the Philippine government, through the Department of Energy (DOE), has already been stepping up calls for ‘upgrade requirements’ on the array of power plants in the country so they can boost the operating efficiencies of their facilities and prevent the recurrent outages distressing the power system. Quezon Power is so far advancing initiative on that sphere and becoming the ‘proof-of-concept’ for digital power plants in the country.
Thiel expounded that with this ABB digital solution, “new operators can become familiar with the plant’s control system and learn the operations without working directly in the control system of the plant.” Overall, he said, this entails “less risk” in their operations.
Essentially, the simulator “will offer a virtual recreation of the actual Quezon power plant, including non-standard scenarios and faults, allowing both newly recruited staff and existing operators to become more familiar with their working environment and learn how to react in challenging situations.
Additionally, Thiel said, “our operations team can also test new control logic changes that can improve efficiency for instance, or help us be more resilient to system disturbances.”
He qualified that “by testing the logic changes in the simulator, we can avoid implementing unproven changes in the control system,” emphasizing that this new system “will be quite valuable to our overall operations.”