ERC mulls geothermal, hydro bid price cap removal

The Energy Regulatory Commission is having a hard time capping off prices for geothermal and hydroelectric power that will be up for bidding under a new round of the Green Energy Auction Program targeted to be finished by November.

No less than ERC chairperson and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta admitted that developing these kinds of power sources requires a more expensive technology than those used in other forms of energy already available in the market.

As such, the power regulator is consulting with the Department of Energy or DoE as well as interested investors about the possibility of "not putting a reserve price" for geothermal and hydroelectric power.

"The (auction) this year for geothermal and pumped storage hydro is still being discussed with DoE because it's a different technology and the costs are front-ended. We're studying if it's possible not to put a Green Energy Auction Reserve or GEAR price for them and just evaluate their bids," Dimalanta told reporters in a chance interview on Tuesday.

"Maybe, we need to check with banks also to see if it would be more palatable to the banking industry because they'll be the ones to finance all these projects. Of course, there still may be some actions required from the ERC if we don't set the cap," she added.

A GEAR price is the maximum price offered in pesos per kilowatt-hour set of energy supply. It puts the price cap for the auction conducted for the period when tariffs are in effect.

Early this week, the DoE opened the bidding documents submitted by power developers and operators under the fourth Open and Competitive Selection Process or OCSP4 for hydropower, geothermal, and wind energy resources.

The new round of auction has received a total of 25 applications received for 13 out of 20 Pre-Determined Areas or PDAs.

The OCSP is an investment promotion mechanism where potential areas for clean energy development or pre-determined areas or PDAs are offered and bid out to private investors.

Based on the prescribed timelines, the legal, technical, and financial evaluation of all bids is expected to be completed on 12 October, while the awarding of RE contracts is targeted on 24 November.