The Department of Energy (DOE) said Monday it will proceed with the third round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA-3) involving 4,399 megawatts (MW) of capacity.
The agency said GEA-3 specifically caters to non-feed-in-tariff (FIT) eligible renewable energy technologies including geothermal, impounding hydro and pumped-storage hydro.
Under GEA-3, run-of-river hydro, which is an eligible technology for FIT, will also be included.
According to the DOE, GEA-3 capacities to be auctioned off include 699 MW from impounding hydro, 3,120 MW from pumped-storage hydro, and 380 MW from geothermal.
Qualified hydro projects under GEA-3 must complete and be operational from 2028 to 2030 while geothermal projects must be working from 2024 to 2030.
Another 200 MW of renewable energy capacity from run-of-river hydro projects must also be completed beginning 2026 to 2028 under GEA-3.
The DOE said the publication of notices and terms of reference as well as price determination for non-FIT eligible technologies and the green energy auction reserve price for run-of-river hydro is scheduled on 29 April this year.
Actual auction under GEA-3 will be pursued on 21 August and contracts for run-of-river hydro set for 18 September and the rest of the technologies by 10 December this year.
The GEA is pursued annually to beef up the country’s renewable energy capacity by offering incentivized fixed power rates, among other benefits.
According to DOE data, the installed renewable energy capacity in the Philippines comprising of solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass technologies as of end-November 2023 total 8,320 MW.
This is equivalent to 29.3 percent of the 28,359 MW installed capacity for the period, excluding energy storage systems.
