Renewable energy (RE) developers have more appetite for the third round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA-3) as bids exceeded the 4,650 megawatts (MW) installation capacity target of the Department of Energy (DOE).
DOE reported Wednesday that the GEA-3 attracted 14 projects with tendered capacity of 7,530.89 MW, with delivery period between 2025 and 2035.
“This marks a significant step towards realizing the energy agenda of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to accelerate the country’s transition to renewable energy and attain energy security and reliability,” the agency said in a statement.
The Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) is a competitive process to increase the RE capacity in the country to meet its target of expanding RE share to the power generation mix to 35 percent in 2030 and to 50 percent by 2040.
The GEA-3 focuses on RE technologies not eligible for feed-in tariff (FIT) such as pumped-storage hydropower (PSH), impounding hydropower, and geothermal.
Offers for PSH technology reached 6,950 MW, higher than the 4,250 MW target installation. These will be for the Luzon and Visayas grids.
“Pumped-storage hydropower has the capability to perform as an energy storage facility that can complement generation from variable renewable energy (VRE) sources such as solar and wind but at the same time can inject power into the grid for supply augmentation and balance the intermittency of VREs in the power system towards achieving energy security,” the DOE said.
Currently, the country’s only operating PSH is the government-owned Kalayaan 1 and 2 in Laguna with a total capacity of 300 MW.
Bid for impounding hydropower attracted a total of 550 MW, surpassing the target of 300 MW, which will be supplied to the grids of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Tender for geothermal technology was only at 30.89 MW, which is below the 100 MW target installed capacity. This will also be for the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao networks.
The DOE will announce the winning bids once the Energy Regulatory Commission has completed the review of the price offers.
“The Certificate of Award will be released to the Winning Bidder upon complete submission of the post-auction documents under Section 9 of the Terms of Reference and affirmed in order by the GEA-Bids Evaluation and Awards Committee,” it added. (PNA)
