DOE green auction winners given more time to comply with requirements

MANILA  -Winning bidders in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) second round of competitive bidding for renewable energy capacities have until Oct. 10 to comply with post-auction requirements, with the deadline extended by a month due to recent work suspensions brought about by typhoons.

In an advisory, the DOE warned winners in the second Green Energy Auction Program (GEA-2) that failure to submit the requirements could result in disqualification.

According to the agency, the companies are required to submit a performance bond and an affidavit of undertaking to deliver their committed capacities.

Meanwhile, the DOE will verify if the concerned bid is already covered by a renewable energy contract.

If a bid is not yet covered at the time of the submission of requirements, the winning bidder will also have to submit proof of contract acquisition before the DOE issues a certificate of award.

A total of 105 winning bids were declared in the GEA-2 conducted on July 3, with the companies committing to provide 3,580.76 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy capacity in the next three years.
This is only a third of the 11,600 MW that the DOE auctioned off, leaving around 8,000 MW still unsubscribed.

GEA-2 is crucial in achieving the government’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and increasing the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix from the current 22 percent to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) previously said it would review the price caps it had issued for the program, as the private sector deemed that these were “too low” and thus discouraged companies from participating in the auction. INQ