Renewable energy developer Upgrade Energy Philippines, Inc. (UGEP) has partnered with AI energy management software provider thingnario to deploy an artificial intelligence-driven monitoring and energy management system across its planned 1-gigawatt (GW) solar portfolio targeted for completion by 2028.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to integrate thingnario’s AI-powered solar monitoring and Energy Management System (EnMS) into UGEP’s pipeline, which includes commercial and industrial, utility-scale, battery energy storage system (BESS), and off-grid projects.

The partnership aims to improve asset performance, automate operational monitoring, and support grid management as UGEP expands its renewable energy portfolio.

thingnario Sales Director Joseph Teng said the collaboration will help both companies respond more effectively to changing market conditions.

“In a volatile market where regulations change and energy supplies remain unstable, a company’s speed of response is its greatest asset. This partnership allows us to stay future-ready, keeping our focus squarely on rapid business growth and clean energy expansion,” he said.

UGEP Chief Operating Officer Pieterjan Vanbuggenhout said the company will deploy the technology across its entire project pipeline to strengthen asset management.

“We are very excited to bring our entire pipeline to this collaboration. Through this technology, we have managed to introduce automatic reporting and AI-driven performance evaluations, allowing us to dive much deeper into asset analysis,” he said.

According to the companies, the system will use thingnario’s PHOTON platform to consolidate project monitoring into a single dashboard with one-minute data updates. 

The platform includes AI-based event detection designed to identify operational issues before they lead to downtime, while automating reporting, curtailment analysis, and billing functions.

The platform is also designed for Philippine commercial and industrial solar projects with complex electrical configurations, including multiple tapping points and zero-export systems.

The companies said the approach can reduce construction costs by using low-voltage current transformer-only (CT-only) configurations while supporting future expansion into broader energy management applications

The AI platform will also support UGEP’s planned BESS deployments through functions such as peak shaving, load shifting, and grid optimization. The companies said the technology will also be applied to off-grid projects to improve monitoring and operational reliability in remote areas.

thingnario said its software currently manages more than 5.5 GW of solar assets across over 11,000 sites worldwide. In the Philippines, it manages more than 200 megawatts (MW) of commercial and industrial solar capacity and over 100 MW of utility-scale solar projects.

What do you think? Will AI-driven energy management become a standard feature of large-scale renewable energy projects in the Philippines? Share your insights in the comments.

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