Wärtsilä will deliver a barge-mounted energy storage system for Therma Marine Inc. (TMI), a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation, one of the Philippines’ leading companies involved in power generation, distribution, and retail electricity services. The said energy storage system will have a capacity of 54 MW/32 MWh and will be delivered on an engineering, procurement, and construction basis. It will be placed next to TMI’s existing thermal power barge of 100 MW capacity and will provide flexibility for TMI in their ancillary service contract with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
The project will be located in the municipality of Maco in the province of Davao de Oro and will be first such deployment of a barge-mounted floating energy storage system in the South East Asia region according to a company announcement. The set up on the barge will include ten Wärtsilä GridSolv Max systems which will be supported by the company’s advanced GEMS energy management platform. The order for the storage system was placed in September 2020 and the project delivery is scheduled to be completed in Q4 2021.
“Wärtsilä will meet our urgent needs with this innovative and unique floating energy storage barge. Their ability to deliver this first-of-a-kind solution in less than 12 months is, to say the least, impressive,” commented Emmanuel V. Rubio, Aboitiz Power President and Chief Executive Officer.
“In addition to meeting TMI’s needs, it is important to note that Wärtsilä is the sole EPC provider for this kind of a project. The alternative would be to have one supplier for the barge and another for the energy storage system, which would require a lot of coordination and would undoubtedly slow the final delivery considerably,” added Kari Punnonen, Wärtsilä Energy Business Director, Australasia.