Aboitiz Power gets BESS financing package from syndicate of local banks

Aboitiz Power [AP 43.60 ?3.8%] [link] said it “secured financing for the expansion of its Battery Storage Systems” from BPI [BPI 129.00 ?0.8%], Chinabank [CBC 87.05 ?0.6%], and BDO [BDO 143.00 ?3.2%]. While AP didn’t disclose the aggregate amount of the financing made available through the agreements, it did say that the funds would be used on projects co-located with its hydroelectric dams in Isabela and Benguet. As noted by AP’s press release, a BESS system is one that stores electricity and releases that electricity to the grid “when needed to augment supply or improve power quality”.

MB BOTTOM-LINE:  Think of these BESS systems as large batteries that allow AP to store up electricity when it is cheap, and then release that electricity when it becomes more expensive. It’s power grid arbitrage. I’m so happy to see these BESS systems growing in popularity, because the previous iteration of this kind of facility is what is known as a pumped storage system, and just the thought of that makes life just feel so sad. Batteries feel much nicer in comparison to wasting a massive amount of electricity pumping water up a hill. These aren’t sexy facilities, and they’re mostly used for increasing the average price of the electricity sold by the co-located powerplant, but they’re useful little grid features that help considerably in the long run.