THE Department of Energy (DoE) said the second round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA) resulted in successful applications amounting to less than a third of the 11,600 megawatts (MW) in renewable energy (RE) capacity on offer.
The successful bids were equivalent to 3,580.76 MW of RE capacity, or 30.9% of the capacity up for grabs.
“We will review, and we will also have discussions with the auction participants. We will decide on the unsubscribed capacity after our discussions with the auction participants,” Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara said in a Viber message.
The DoE said the GEA second round resulted in successful applications for 1,968.98 MW worth of ground-mounted solar for the 2024 to 2026 period.
About 9.39 MW was committed in the rooftop solar industry for 2024 and 2025, while 90 MW was committed in the floating solar segment in 2026. Some 1,512.38 MW was committed in the onshore wind segment between 2025 and 2026.
Biomass and waste-to-energy projects attracted no commitments, the DoE said.
In June the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) issued the final green energy auction reserve (GEAR) price for the second round at P4.40 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for ground-mounted solar; P4.87 per KWh for rooftop solar; P5.39 per kWh for floating solar; P5.85 per kWh for onshore wind; P5.40 for biomass and P6.27 per kWh for biomass waste-to-energy.
The Philippine Solar and Storage Energy Alliance had asked the ERC to raise the GEAR price for floating solar to P7.37 per kWh, considering differences in the segment’s “ecosystem” compared to ground-mounted solar.
The DoE will release the list of winning bidders on July 12.
“These winning bids were ranked based on offers from the lowest to highest bid prices and stacked corresponding to the respective RE technology per grid,” the DoE said.
The notice of award will also be issued on July 12, while the certificate of award will be released to the winning bidders upon the submission of post-auction requirements within a 60-day period. These include a performance bond; affidavit of undertaking to deliver the committed capacity; and a statement that the RE contract has been executed for non-holders of contracts prior to GEA-2 registration.
Failure to comply with the requirements set for GEA-2 will result in forfeiture of the award and of the bid bond, the DoE said.
The GEA program aims to promote RE as a primary source of energy through competitive selection.
“As the GEA will be conducted on a yearly basis, the DoE encourages RE developers that were not able to win in the 2nd auction round, and those that were not able to submit offers, to participate in subsequent auction rounds,” the DoE said. — Ashley Erika O. Jose