DOE slates 3rd round of Green Energy Auction

Another round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA) will be conducted this year as part of the country’s utilization of renewable energy resources and attainment of energy security and reliability, the Department of Energy (DOE) said.

The third GEA round will cater to non-feed-in tariff (nonFIT) eligible RE technologies such as geothermal, impounding hydro and pumped-storage hydro.

GEA-3 will also allow the inclusion of FIT run-of-river (ROR) hydro, the DOE said.

The estimated capacities for each technology are 699 megawatts from impounding hydro; 3,120 MW from pumped-storage hydro; and 380 MW from geothermal. Meanwhile, about 200 MW of capacity from ROR hydro will be auctioned off.

Impounding hydro and pumped-storage hydro will commence from 2028 to 2030. The delivery commencement period (DCP) for geothermal will begin in 2024 until 2030.

DCP for ROR hydro will begin in 2026 and end in 2028.

Publication of the notice of auction, terms of reference, and release of price determination methodology for non-FIT eligible RE technologies and Green Energy Auction Reserve (GEAR) price for ROR hydro are expected to kick off on April 29.

Registration and posting of the list of qualified suppliers are scheduled on May 13 and July 4, respectively.

The auction proper is scheduled on Aug. 21.

Posting of the notice of award for FIT and non-FIT technologies will be on Sept. 18 and Dec. 10, respectively.

In July last year, the DOE was able to generate 3,580.76 MW of renewable energy capacities under the second round of the GEA, which will be delivered between 2024 to 2026.

A total of 105 winning bids were awarded by DOE for renewable energy capacities that have been committed for development and installation from 2024 to 2026.

DOE plans the bidding to take place annually, and has earlier urged losing bidders to participate in future GEAP rounds.