Aboitiz Power Corp. (AboitizPower) on Wednesday said that it had started the construction of a 60 megawatt (MW) Naga battery energy storage system (BESS) in Naga City, Cebu.
The facility, which is expected to provide contingency and regulating reserve power to the Visayas grid, is scheduled to start operations by 2027.
"The Naga BESS project... reflects our efforts to strengthen the energy system by investing in people, infrastructure, and technology to enhance flexibility, resilience, and reliability of the grid," AboitizPower Transition Business Group President Celso Caballero III said.
Built by National Power Corp. in the 1980s, the Naga Power Plant Complex was acquired by AboitizPower in 2018 through the government's privatization program.
AboitizPower said the BESS project marked the site’s transformation from thermal power generation to energy storage as the site's legacy coal and diesel-fired units had been decommissioned.
AboitizPower's share price fell by 45 centavos to close at P40.50 apiece on Wednesday.
