The Department of Energy (DOE) is reviewing the low turnout of interested parties in the competitive selection process for micro grid service provider (MGSP) in December and plans to hold another bid round this year, an official said.
It announced in December that Maharlika Consortium, a group composed of three energy companies, submitted complete bid proposals during the first MGSP-CSP.
The consortium, which is not related to the government’s Maharlika Investment Corp., is composed of Clean Power Holdings Inc., Singapore-based CleanGrid Partners and WEnergy Global.
The DOE conducted on Dec. 27 the MGSP bidding for the electrification of an initial 98 unserved and underserved areas nationwide.
“We still have to complete the first CSP process for the MGSP. We are in the process of evaluating the offers we received. Upon completion of those process, then we will start processing of the second round,” DOE assistant secretary Mario Marasigan said.
“We have to consider our experience during the conduct of first CSP of the microgrid system to effect on the succeeding because we have to evaluate ourselves also. Why we received these offers only?” he said.
He said one reason why the first bidding drew few participants “is the lack of time for the proponents to come up with a complete study on the target areas.”
“We need to revisit practically the terms of reference because that is what the proponents follow in coming up with their proposals. So, if what is lacking is time, data and information then we have to address those. It may call for some amendments in the terms of reference we used in the first CSP,” Marasigan said.
He said the DOE wanted to conduct the next bidding this year because its target is to conduct the MGSP-CSP annually.
Republic Act (RA) No. 11646, or the Microgrid Systems Act of 2022, mandates the conduct of a CSP before an MGSP can serve off-grid areas.
“While we received proposals from only one pre-qualified bidder and acknowledge that we may not encompass all 98 declared unserved and underserved areas, we deem our pilot implementation of the MGSP-CSP a success,” Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said earlier.
“This is a crucial step forward, as it ensures that communities will soon benefit from deploying microgrid systems. Learning from this pilot CSP experience, we are committed to implementing enhancements for the next round of MGSP-CSP scheduled in 2024,” Guevara said.
The DOE said that out of nine pre-qualified bidders, it received six complete bid proposals, both financial and technical, from the Maharlika Consortium, covering eight lots that include unserved areas in the Provinces of Cebu, Quezon and Palawan.
