3rd RE bid round before year’s end

The Department of Energy (DoE) assured lawmakers that the third Green Energy Auction (GEA-3) will be completed before the end of the year — a move that could significantly boost renewable energy (RE) capacity and address concerns on energy storage and grid stability.

At a Senate budget hearing on Wednesday, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said all hands are on deck to ensure the program pushes through.

“Our target for the Green Energy Auction 3 is to finish it before the end of the year, such that the pumped storage hydro, [more than] 3,000 megawatts (MW), will be able to come in five years from now,” Guevara said.

She was responding to Senate Energy Committee chairperson Senator Pia Cayetano, who cited the need to complete the auction and advance the country’s RE goals.

Wait-and-see game

Cayetano noted that investors are currently playing a wait-and-see game on GEA-3’s completion.

“I understand we have investors who are ready to get it done. And we need it because this will address Sen. Risa [Hontiveros]’s and my concern, and all the other RE advocates’ concerns because we’ll have the storage,” the lawmaker said, adding that storage capacity is crucial to accelerating the adoption of RE.

“We keep on saying that that is the problem why we cannot fully embrace renewables as fast as we want to,” she added. GEA-3 covers RE technologies, including non-feed-in-tariff (Non-FIT) eligible technologies like geothermal, impounding hydro, and pumped-storage hydro, as outlined in Department Circular No. DC2023-10-0029.

The auction will also include run-of-river (ROR) hydro, which is a FIT-eligible technology.

The capacities up for auction reflect the DOE’s push to augment RE sources: 699 MW from impounding hydro, 3,120 MW from pumped-storage hydro, and 380 MW from geothermal.

Grid balance via hydro

The pumped-storage hydro component, which offers 3,120 MW of flexible storage and generation, will play a critical role in balancing the grid and managing variable RE (VRE) sources.

Meanwhile, geothermal and impounding hydro will provide dependable baseload power, ensuring a stable and consistent energy supply.

Target delivery for impounding and pumped-storage hydro is from 2028 to 2030, while geothermal is expected to begin contributing to the grid between 2024 and 2030.