Electricity prices are seen to significantly go down once the Department of Energy completes the five rounds of Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP), the agency said Wednesday.
DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said this was the results of the study done by the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines, operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
“Because I was asked about prices, nobody asked about what will happen to the prices eventually. So we asked the IEMOP, the market operator, to do a simulation of prices of electricity until 2050 if all the green energy auctions number one to five come online,” Guevara said.
Guevara said the study showed that Luzon rates, on the average, would be P4.95 per kilowatt-hour by 2026. “By 2050, it will be P0.28 per kWh. Visayas will go from about P5.28 per kWh in 2026 to P0.48 per kWh by 2050,” she said.
Guevara said Mindanao rates at P4.06 would go down to P0.36 per kWh by 2050.
“The reason I’m saying this is that, you know, even in the UK, when they started the offshore wind, the price per megawatt hour was 120 pounds. In four years’ time, that 120 pounds on track for difference went down to 42 pounds. So the initial investment for new technologies might sound very high, but eventually it goes down,” Guevara said.
Meanwhile, the DOE announced the list of bidders under the third round of the GEAP (GEA-3) which formally accepted the bid awards.
The DOE said in a statement the bidders confirmed their acceptance by submitting written confirmations. Pacific Renewable Power Phils. Corp. accepted the award for three hydroelectric power projects (HPPs), including two impounding HPPs, such as the 150-MW Gened 1 and 150-MW Gened 2 projects, and the 2,000-MW Maton pumped-storage HPP, all located in Apayao province.
Coheco Badeo Corp. confirmed its acceptance for the 500-MW Kibungan Pumped-Storage HPP in Benguet. Olympia Violago Water and Power Inc. and Ahunan Power Inc., both affiliates of Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc., also accepted the award for their pumped-storage projects.
Olympia Violago will develop the 600-MW Wawa Pumped-Storage 1 HPP in Rodriguez, Rizal, while Ahunan Power will construct the 1,400-MW Pakil Pumped-Storage HPP in Pakil, Laguna.
San Roque Hydropower Inc., an affiliate of the San Miguel Group, accepted the award for three pumped-storage projects such as the 800-MW San Roque Lower East Pumped-Storage HPP and 800 MW San Roque West Pumped-Storage HPP in Itogon, Benguet; and the 250-MW Aklan Pumped-Storage HPP in Malay, Aklan.
Energy Development Corp. (EDC) and its affiliate Bac-Man Geothermal Inc. accepted the award for two geothermal facilities: the 5.645-MW Bago Binary Geothermal Power Plant – Unit 1 in Bago City, Negros Occidental, and the 21.573-MW Tanawon Geothermal Power Plant – Unit 1 in Sorsogon City, Sorsogon.
The DOE said that following the acceptance of bid awards by the bidders, a total capacity of 6,677.218 MW is expected to be delivered between 2025 and 2035.
