Innovation

Technological innovation in AboitizPower’s power plants

September 24, 2024

Driven by technology and innovation, smart power plants are bringing in more operational reliability and efficiency amidst the transition to cleaner energy systems.

Operational reliability and efficiency in power generation is crucial to the Philippine energy grid, especially as it is expected to absorb both an increase in electricity demand and variable renewable energy capacities in the coming years.

With lesser downtimes and more proactive maintenance activities, smart power plants figure into the bigger picture of centering energy security — or having a sufficient power supply with reliable access — in the grand journey of the energy transition.

Living out its purpose of Transforming Energy for a Better World and partaking in the Aboitiz Group’s Great Transformation, Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower) intends to pioneer sustainable energy solutions powered by advanced technologies and human ingenuity.

Smart conventional power plants

Under “Project Arkanghel”, AboitizPower has set a goal to transform its existing coal-fired power plants to become smart power plants. The 340-megawatt Therma Visayas Plant in Toledo City, Cebu and the 300-megawatt Therma South Plant in Davao City will serve as pioneer models.

The plan is to establish a Unified Operations Center (UOC), which includes digital twin technologies, anomaly detection and early warning systems, and an “end-to-end” fully integrated live asset health monitoring system. This empowers engineers to predict potential issues and optimize plant operations.

In effect, the UOC will improve plant reliability and efficiency by enabling operators to collect insights and make data driven decisions to predict equipment failures and plan necessary repairs and actions, thus helping to reduce the number of forced or planned plant outages.

Through digital transformation, operators can also better identify alternative combustion processes and different fuel formulations. They can also predict the output of variable renewable energy and prepare the smart power plant to anticipate the movements in supply and demand.

By upgrading the capabilities and efficiencies of its baseload capacities, AboitizPower believes that it is helping manage the integration of more variable renewable energy sources into the power system. Dependable and reliable power will be needed by a growing Filipino population and economy.

In developing “Project Arkanghel”, AboitizPower has partnered with Thailand-based company REPCO NEX Industrial Solutions.

Smart renewable energy facilities

AboitizPower’s investments in technology include its National Operations Control Center (NOCC) — the first of its kind in the Philippine power generation sector — which allows for the operation and monitoring of 26 renewable energy facilities all from one location.

This means that even if the power generation facility is thousands of kilometers away, NOCC engineers can observe, make decisions, and control its operations from their computer. Monitoring and data collection are also streamlined, making it easier to consolidate data for strategizing and meeting regulatory requirements.

With operational control and data collection being centralized in the NOCC, operators utilize data analytics, data science, and artificial intelligence for better resource management, leading to more efficient operations and dispatch of the hydropower and solar facilities integrated in the system. The NOCC also allows for faster communication of detected plant anomalies within its regulated ecosystem, contributing to minimized downtime and losses.

Consequently, the NOCC enables higher power generation output from the renewable energy power plants.

At the same time, in some of AboitizPower’s hydropower and solar power plants, specialized drones are being deployed to make maintenance and rehabilitation activities more efficient.

Power plant operators would no longer have to manually visit and inspect each solar panel, conveyance line, or any other component of a renewable energy facility if a drone can do it for them.

Using drones makes inspections quicker, saving AboitizPower a lot of resources since it initially takes significant time and effort for a person to check on the Company’s assets given the sheer size and scope of its facilities.

Outfitted with high-resolution cameras and other onboard sensing equipment, the drones diagnose maintenance requirements faster, resulting in less downtime and more reliability in clean power generation.

The drones have empowered the operators to take preemptive measures, preventing costly breakdowns and ensuring the power plant’s capability to generate electricity. The data collected through drone inspections served as the foundation for a thorough evaluation and design process leading to focused maintenance activities and improvements in the infrastructure.