The Department of Energy (DOE) said three more Green Energy Auction (GEA) exercises have been scheduled between now and next year.
Under the GEA, a special rate for renewable energy (RE) proponents prevail and auctioned off based on power plant capacity to deliver either as peaking or mid-merit power supplier.
GEA reserve (GEAR) prices serve as ceiling price but players have to compete and offer the lowest rate to secure the incentive.
DOE undersecretary Rowena Guevara said the GEA-4 should happen before the end of the year and requires more than 8,200 megawatts (MW) worth of RE projects with energy storage system (ESS) components. GEA-5 is seen launched around mid 2025 requiring a still unspecified volume of offshore wind projects.
Guevara said at an energy forum in Taguig City that the decision to also involve ESS in one of the GEA rounds was meant to help stabilize renewable energy project output.
“Originally, we were thinking of 8,200 MW for GEA-4 but might increase this as we saw that fossil fuels overtake renewables,” Guevara added.
The DOE reiterated GEA-3 will be conducted before the end of the year and requires 4,399 MW broken down into 3,120 MW from pumped-storage hydro, 699 MW from impounding hydro, 380 MW from geothermal, and 200 MW from run-of-river hydro.
However, Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Monalisa Dimalanta said the regulator has yet to determine the pricing method for GEA-3.
“We’ve been working on it but we need to formalize the process because there will be public consultation for the rates,” Dimalanta said.
Earlier, the ERC said subsequent GEA rounds may not have GEAR prices to instead allow developers to offer their own bid price that may be more appropriate for some power technologies.
GEA was first conducted in June 2022 and attracted 1,996.93 MW worth of RE comprised of 1,490.38 MW ground-mounted solar; 374 MW onshore wind; 99.15 MW hydro; and 3.4 MW biomass.
GEA-2 was concluded in July 2023.
