The Energy Regulatory Commission said Friday it released the final Green Energy Auction Reserve prices for the second phase of the program that will be conducted by the Department of Energy.
It adjusted the rates to reflect the concerns raised by renewable energy developers during the series of consultations.
The agency set the GEAR price for ground-mounted solar at P4.4043 per kilowatt-hour, rooftop solar at P4.8738 per kWh, floating solar at P5.3948 per KWh, onshore wind at P5.8481, biomass at P5.4024 and biomass waste-to-energy at P6.2683 per kWh.
The final rates were higher than the preliminary rates for rooftop solar at P4.7156 per kWh, ground-mounted solar at P4.2395 per KWh, floating solar at P4.7565 per kWh and biomass waste at P6.4968 per kWh.
However, the final rate was lower for biomass and wind, compared to the preliminary rates of P5.1475 per kWh and P5.9823 per kWh, respectively.
“After thorough and due deliberation, and after careful consideration of the various views and comments submitted by stakeholders and guided by the policy objectives in the EPIRA and the RE Act of 2008, the commission, on June 14, 2023, approved the Final Green Energy Auction Reserve prices for the second round of Green Energy Auction,” the ERC said.
The issuance is pursuant to the DOE’s Department Circular No. DC2021-11- 0036, providing the revised guidelines for the Green Energy Auction Program, where the ERC will determine the GEAR prices which are the ceiling price offers in the auction.
RE developers said the Philippine energy system is in a critical stage of decarbonization as the government auctions over 11,000 MW of clean energy for deployment from 2024 to 2026.
“The volume is impressive as it beats other Asian countries except China. However, the true test will be in the participation of the bidders given the proposed tariff, especially for solar which constitutes half of the target installation,” said Philippine Solar and Storage Alliance chairperson Tetchi Capellan.
“The first round of auction failed to attract the major energy stakeholders in the solar space due to low bid price. Let us watch how this year will turn out and if bidders will have a different profile,” Capellan said.
The DOE was supposed to conduct the auction on June 19 but decided to postpone it pending the release of the final GEAP reserve price by the ERC and give the qualified bidders more time to prepare their offers.
