DoE: Green energy auction finished within the year --[Reported by Umva mag]

THE Department of Energy (DoE) has assured lawmakers that the third round of the green energy auction (GEA-3) will be completed before the end of the year, anticipating additional renewable energy capacities.

“Our target for the Green Energy Auction 3 is to finish it before the end of the year such that the pumped storage hydro, [more than] 3,000 megawatts, will be able to come in five years from now,” Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara told a Senate budget hearing on Wednesday.

The GEA program aims to promote renewable energy as one of the country’s primary sources of energy through competitive selection.

Renewable energy developers compete for incentivized fixed power rates by offering their lowest price for a certain capacity.

“We’re going to be issuing the terms of reference soon… the performance or nonperformance of projects will be included,” Ms. Guevara said.

Sen. Pilar Juliana “Pia” S. Cayetano said that investors are anticipating the upcoming round of GEA.

“I understand we have investors who are ready to get it done. And we need it because this will address Senator Risa’s (Hontiveros) and my concern, and all the other renewable energy advocates’ concern because we’ll have the storage,” she said.

“We keep on saying that is the problem why we cannot fully embrace renewables as fast as we want to,” she added.

The DoE staged GEA-1 in 2022 and attracted 1,966.93 MW worth of bids for renewables, while GEA-2 was held last year, where 3,440.76 MW worth of service contracts were awarded.

In February, the department said that it would auction off renewable energy technologies worth a total capacity of 4,399 MW.

GEA-3 will cater to non-feed-in-tariff (non-FIT) eligible renewable energy technologies such as geothermal, impounding hydro, and pumped storage hydro.

The upcoming auction will also cater to run-of-river hydro, which is a FIT-eligible renewable energy technology.

Broken down, estimated capacities for non-FIT eligible renewable energy technologies are 699 MW from impounding hydro, 3,120 MW from pumped storage hydro, and 380 MW from geothermal.

Capacities from impounding hydro and pumped storage hydro are targeted to be delivered by 2028 to 2030 and 2024 to 2030 for geothermal.

An estimated 200 MW of capacity is expected to be auctioned from run-of-river hydro, with a target delivery starting in 2026 to 2028. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

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