It has been roughly a year since we last spoke with Pablo Varela, Managing Director for Aggreko’s Latin American operations. Today, when we speak to Matteo Sarubbi, Aggreko’s Head of Commercial for Latin America, and the Caribbean, we discover that the year has been a busy one.
Our conversation with Varela primarily concerned the energy transition and how Aggreko was supporting its customers through those changes.
“We have continued on that journey,” Sarubbi tells us. “The technology is changing fast, and our customers’ requirements are changing too. The next couple of years are going to be a long journey to support those customers through these changes.”
The next step in that journey is being accelerated by increased regulation around emissions, particularly in the Mining and Oil and Gas sectors, where the demand for hybrid solutions continues to grow.
“The focus is on as much renewable generation as possible,” Sarubbi says.
In pursuing that focus on the Latin American region, Aggreko has made substantial achievements in supporting its customers in finding energy sources that are not only cleaner, but also more reliable, and more efficient.
“That is one of the biggest challenges the market has right now,” Sarubbi says. “Everyone talks about the benefits of solar PV as a sustainable alternative, but that technology alone is an intermittent solution. So, one of our biggest challenges has been figuring out how to integrate this renewable source with our thermal solutions and energy storage systems to deliver the clean power our customers are looking for in an efficient and stable manner – especially in regions not connected to the grid. That has been our major achievement.”
An Elevated Storage Solution
When we speak with Sarubbi it is clear he is excited about Aggreko’s latest investment in achieving the business’s overall mission. It is not enough just to generate power, for the solutions to be reliable and stable, that power needs to be stored too.
“We know the challenge- batteries are one of the solutions,” Sarubbi says simply. “Aggreko has invested a lot in acquiring knowledge and capabilities by acquiring businesses in the batteries sector and developing strategic relationships with battery producers.”
Alongside these partners, Aggreko can address challenges to some of the most unexpected problems in the sector.
“We are working with one partner to develop a battery for high altitudes,” Sarubbi tells us. “There is a big demand for that, particularly in the mining sector. It is vital to help with the hybridisation process.”
Now, unless you have specialist knowledge of battery technology, you might not even know that batteries have issues working at high altitudes in the first place. The issue is not the battery cell itself, but the inverters that are used to control a battery’s energy output are affected by the altitude.
“The inverters don’t function the same way at high altitudes as they do at sea level,” Sarubbi explains. “The same thing is true of thermal generators. The air density is different – we are not sure how inverters react in an environment 4,000 metres above sea level, so that is exactly what we are testing.”
Aggreko addresses challenges like this by finding partnerships with the right players in the market who can bring their expertise to bear on the solutions Aggreko needs.
Moving with the Times
The technology, the regulatory environment, and the market itself are all changing rapidly, and Aggreko needs to be able to adapt to those changes at the same speed.
“If you look at where Aggreko was five years ago, the focus was exporting our standard generator kits around the globe to support our customers,” Sarubbi recalls. “However, as a global company working with so many different customers in so many different circumstances, we often found that the solution we had to offer was not the right one for our customer’s challenges.”
Aggreko responded by adapting, not for the last time.
“We had to think a lot about what the right fit for the customer was and that would work for them and us, using our resources and expertise to provide the best energy solutions for customers around the world.”
That sense of adaptability and flexibility has become a core part of Aggreko’s identity.
“There are customers that look to us and want to hire a power plant on a rental basis,” Sarubbi tells us. “Others want to deal with us on a field operating and transfer format, where we build the plant and then transfer ownership to them. Some just want to buy kilowatts per hour. That flexibility is one of the main aspects of our business model.”
Looking forward, Aggreko Latin America is planning to continue its focus on the firm’s three leading market sectors for the region, oil and gas, mining, and the utility sector generating power for the grid.
“One of the main focuses of the last couple of years has been to specialise ourselves in those sectors and understand the necessities on the customer side, not just the provider side,” Sarubbi says. “We want to support them in making sure their operation runs smoothly as experts in our field. So, our main focus is how to incrementally grow our market share in those three sectors. We are looking for hybrid solutions to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint as Oil and Gas and Mining companies are starting to move in that direction.”
Aggreko also intends to pursue the growing utility market, specifically in areas around renewable solutions such as solar power, biogas (including from landfills), and a range of hybrid solutions.
“We are currently working on projects based on the thermal format, hybridising those plants to ensure a reliable and efficient offering that, crucially, is also cleaner,” Sarubbi says.
Whatever is needed to grow these sectors, Aggreko has demonstrated the ability to adapt to meet those needs.
