Energy Storage Could be Solution To Solar PV-related Blackouts in The Philippines

In Visayas, one of the three main island groups in The Philippines, too much solar on the grid may lead to blackouts during the election period, which begins today, March 28, and lasts until May 7.  Grid operators are concerned that too much power is being fed into the grid when all of the solar PV plants in the region are churning out electric power along with the geothermal and coal plants in the region — even if the geothermal and coal plants are dialed down to their minimum load requirements.  Further the swings in power supply due to intermittent PV generation (from 20 to 50 percent) have already caused grid interruptions.   Visayas does not have any frequency regulation providers to help balance the grid and absorb excess capacity and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and the government are exploring the use of energy storage and potentially hydro assets to help solve the problem.  Meanwhile in the U.S. the Energy Storage Association on March 28 is launching its new #StorageIsHere campaign in an attempt to bring more visibility to the technology that it says is already "booming."  The articles below offer more detail on both stories.  Image By Howard the Duck at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5 .