Third green power auction delayed until January

FILE PHOTO: Department of Energy (DOE) facade. Images from DOE / INQUIRER FILES

The long-awaited third round of the government’s Green Energy Auction (GEA-3) may be pushed back by January next year, an official at the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Thursday.

The DOE’s initial target was to complete the GEA-3 within the year.

Mylene Capongcol, director of the DOE-supervised Renewable Energy Management Bureau, told reporters that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has yet to release its price determination methodology for the GEA’s reserve price.

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Capongcol was referring to the maximum price offers set for the bidding, which is one of the items required to pursue the program’s latest edition.

But ERC Chair Monalisa Dimalanta said regulators were still in the process of determining the price, with the goal of finalizing and releasing the information “this month.”

The new round of bidding of concessions to build clean power projects will focus on geothermal, impounding hydro and pumped-storage hydro, and run-of-river hydro.

According to Capongcol, many energy players have already expressed their intention to participate in the bidding, which includes conglomerate San Miguel Corp. of billionaire Ramon Ang.

Also, a top official of listed Alternergy Holdings Corp. earlier said the group might join the auction. Alternergy currently has 11 operating assets with a total combined capacity of 86 megawatts (MW). It hopes to grow this number by 500 MW by 2026.

Meanwhile, Capongcol said the DOE may release within this month the notice of auction and terms of reference for the GEA-4, which would cover integrated renewable energy and energy storage systems.