On a former coal and diesel site in southern Cebu, workers are breaking ground on something very different: a giant battery that could power 60,000 homes.
Aboitiz Power Corporation broke ground July 1 on a 60-megawatt battery energy storage system in Naga, Cebu — a facility being built right where old coal and diesel generators once stood. Those fossil-fuel units, dating back to the 1980s, have been fully decommissioned and demolished to make room for clean energy.
The new system will store up to 120 megawatt-hours of electricity — enough to keep the lights on across Cebu during outages or whenever the grid needs a quick boost. It works by sucking up excess power when demand is low and releasing it within milliseconds when supply drops. Company leaders expect the facility to go live by October 2027.
"This project represents a tangible shift away from centralized fossil generation toward flexible grid infrastructure," said Celso Caballero III, president of the Aboitiz Power Transition Business Group, at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Cebu has struggled with unreliable power for years, with the region prone to rolling blackouts during peak hours. The new battery system is designed to act as a shock absorber for the grid — a primary backup that kicks in instantly when something goes wrong.
The Naga project is actually Aboitiz's second major battery installation in Cebu alone. Just across the province, in the Mactan Economic Zone in Lapu-Lapu City, the company is finishing a 30-megawatt hybrid battery system at the East Asia Utilities Corporation complex. That project is mechanically complete and awaiting final regulatory approval before switching on.
The Philippines is clearly catching battery fever. The Energy Regulatory Commission is currently reviewing 17 separate applications for energy storage projects across the Visayas and Mindanao regions. This follows a direct order from the Department of Energy requiring energy companies to deploy at least 170 megawatts of storage capacity across Cebu, Negros, and Panay to handle the growing flood of solar and wind power coming online.
Aboitiz alone is managing more than 10 battery storage projects spread across the Philippines's major island groups. Among them: a 49-megawatt hybrid battery system in Maco, Davao de Oro, which was one of the first large-scale storage projects in the country. Up north in Luzon, the company operates a 24-megawatt battery system at the Magat hydroelectric complex in Ramon, Isabela, with a 16-megawatt second phase currently in development.
The company is also building the Calatrava Solar Power Plant in Negros Occidental — its second solar facility in that province and the largest renewable energy installation in the entire Visayas region. All of it points to the same direction: coal is on the way out, and big batteries are taking its place.