The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has approved preliminary green energy auction (GEA) reserves price for renewable energy (RE).
Under GEA, RE producers will compete for incentivized fixed power rates by offering their lowest price for a certain capacity.
Based on ERC’s notice dated March 23, preliminary ceiling rates are at P3.6248 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for solar; P5.2887 per kWh for wind; P5.5480 per kWh for biomass; and P5.8705 per kWh for run-of-river hydro.
ERC said interested parties are required to submit their comments on or before March 30.
A public consultation will be held on April 1.
In the guidelines released by the Department of Energy (DOE), GEA is open to both new and existing RE capacities with no existing power purchase agreement or power supply agreement with any distribution utility or end-user at the time of the agreed delivery dates.
For each auction, the DOE will release a notice that will indicate where and how much capacity will be needed, with due consideration to interconnection limits and security of the national power grid.
Qualified suppliers intending to participate in the auctions must register with the DOE and submit requirements including a letter of intent; a proof of authority; work program; and proof of payment of registration and processing fee.
Interested suppliers will then be evaluated before being declared as qualified bidders.
During the actual auction, qualified bidders will have to place their bids capacity and price offer through an electronic bidding platform operated by the DOE where a committee will then rank the offers from lowest to highest bid price.
GEA is among the policies implemented recently by the DOE meant to further fan the interest of investors in RE.
As of end-2020, the combined share of RE power plants composed of geothermal, hydro, biomass, solar and wind projects is at 7,653 megawatts equivalent to 29 percent of the power mix. -J. Macapagal
