Keeping the lights from flickering

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March 16, 2026 | 12:00am

Notes on the beat

MANILA, Philippines — For many families, Saturday is “laundry day.” But when every household washes clothes at the same time, the water pressure drops to a trickle.

Yet electricity works differently. Even if all households flip on their lights simultaneously, nothing flickers. That’s all thanks to the invisible work of ancillary services, which balance supply and demand to stabilize the grid.

Up north in Luzon, SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP) operates hydropower plants that provide crucial grid support, helping maintain the reliability of the country’s electrical superhighway.

For SNAP president and CEO Joseph Yu, what sets these plants apart from other renewable power sources is their “flexibility and rapid response capability.”

“Hydropower remains one of the most reliable renewable energy (RE) sources available today,” Yu said at a recent energy event in Baguio.

True enough, hydro plants can provide a range of ancillary services, including frequency regulation, contingency reserves and dispatchable power to reinforce the grid during peak demand.

Contingency reserves protect the grid from sudden disruptions, while dispatchable reserves are backup capacities that are ready to be activated when demand rises unexpectedly.

SNAP, a joint venture between Aboitiz Renewables Inc. and Norwegian RE developer Scatec, currently owns and manages four hydro plants totaling over 600 megawatts (MW).

These include the 140-MW Binga and 112.5-MW Ambuklao plants in Benguet; the 8.5-MW Maris facility in Isabela and the 388-MW Magat plant in Isabela and Ifugao, the largest in the company’s portfolio.

The Benguet and Magat plants also provide ancillary services to the grid.

“We’re heavily into ancillary services,” Yu said in an interview. “If you can’t provide enough regulating support for frequency, you’ll have lights flickering all over the place.”

Apart from hydropower, SNAP is also focused on developing battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities to complement its existing plants.

The 16-MW Magat BESS Phase 2 in Isabela is an expansion of the company’s existing 24-MW Magat BESS, which started commercial operations in January 2024.

The 40-MW Binga BESS in Benguet, meanwhile, is SNAP’s first battery storage project in the Cordillera Administrative Region and its third in total.

Both projects are targeted for completion this year.

A BESS facility stores excess electricity generated during low-demand periods and supplies it back to the grid during peak demand, ensuring the stability of the transmission network.

“We aim to help the system operator with systems that help mitigate grid fluctuations, improve network reliability and enable higher penetration of intermittent renewables,” Yu said.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, the sole buyer of ancillary services, recently launched an auction for over 400 MW of power reserves.

The transmission operator aims to secure these ancillary services to ensure grid reliability and maintain power quality.

After all, just as steady water pressure keeps laundry day running smoothly, the country relies on a stable power grid to keep the lights on without flickering.