Government seen holding more green energy auctions this year
By Lenie Lectura – January 2, 2025
from Business Mirror
After putting in place the policies and framework meant to achieve the country’s renewable energy (RE) goals, the umbrella organization of all renewable energy (RE) associations in the country is expecting more green energy auctions to take place this year.
The Developers of Renewable Energy for AdvanceMent Inc. (DREAM) said 2024 was “a banner year” for the Philippine energy sector in terms of numerous policies and regulatory issuances, all geared towards attracting more foreign investments, especially in renewable energy.
DREAM President Jose Layug Jr. said the Department of Energy (DOE), in coordination with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, Philippine National Oil Co. and other government agencies, has placed emphasis on transmission network upgrades and expansion of ports to ensure stable and resilient energy supply.
“In 2025, it is time to follow through these policies with actual programs.”
These include the conduct of Green Energy Auctions for onshore and offshore wind; ground-mounted, floating and rooftop solar; biomass and waste-to-energy resources; geothermal; run-of-river and impounding hydro; integrated renewable energy storage systems opportunities; and natural gas utilization, both through liquefied natural gas (LNG) and exploration of indigenous gas resources.
Moreover, Layug said that with almost 60 percent of energy consumption coming from transportation and households, decarbonizing these sectors would require concerted government efforts, including the increased use of biofuels, higher targets for electric vehicles, installation of more solar rooftop systems and increased adoption of energy efficiency and conservation measures.
“DREAM fully supports the government’s goal of a more dynamic and sustainable energy future that benefits communities, drives economic growth and improves well-being of Filipino consumers.”
The much-anticipated green energy auction 3 (GEA3) will take place this year. For this round, the government will offer impounding hydro, pumped storage hydro, run-of-river (ROR) hydro and geothermal contracts with a combined capacity of 4,475 megawatts.
Among these facilities, ROR hydro is the only technology eligible for feed-in-tariff (FIT), a policy that offers guaranteed fixed payments for emerging RE sources.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) must first issue the green energy auction reserve (GEAR) price for GEA3 before the actual auction takes place. It was supposed to happen last month, but the ERC said further review should be done as “there is still unsubscribed capacity for FIT for this technology (ROR hydro), yet there is additional capacity allocated for GEAP,” said ERC Chairman Monalisa C. Dimalanta.
“This may confuse stakeholders and may render one policy in conflict with the other,” Dimalanta said, referring to the parallel implementation of FIT and GEAP for ROR hydro. “We are asking the DOE on the way forward considering that we are also reviewing the FIT rate for ROR hydro.”
The GEA is designed to trigger the expansion of the country’s RE capacity to support the government’s target of expanding the share of renewables in the energy mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
Image credits: www.spnec.ph
