The Department of Energy (DOE) said the temporary postponement of the country's first offshore wind auction will result in a stronger and more implementation-ready bidding framework, while insisting the delay will not derail the national renewable energy targets.

Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara said the DOE is still targeting to resume the Fifth Round of the Green Energy Auction Program (GEA-5) within the third quarter after recalibrating the auction's framework.

"(It will be) the third quarter," Guevara told reporters on Monday. 

Despite the revised timeline, Guevara said the delay will have no impact on the country's target of raising the share of renewable energy in the power generation mix to 35 percent by 2030.

"As for the effect of the delays on our power targets, there is actually no effect because we remain on track to achieve 35 percent renewable energy in the generation mix by 2030," she said.

According to Guevara, the recalibration is necessary because GEA-5 is the country's first offshore wind auction that requires refinements before projects are awarded.

"Remember that GEA-5 for offshore wind and the Special Auction for Waste-to-Energy are our first auctions for those two technologies. Hence, there are some birth pains, and we are addressing those birth pains," she said.

"So, allow us time to recalibrate the auction to make sure that our targets are realistic and that we can deliver."

The DOE earlier said it suspended GEA-5 to strengthen the auction framework by aligning bidding requirements with actual project development conditions. The review covers transmission capacity, port readiness, environmental and regulatory requirements, project timelines, and inter-agency coordination to improve the bankability and deliverability of awarded projects.

The department said the revised Terms of Reference and auction schedule will be released after the technical review and consultations with concerned agencies are completed.

Guevara noted that a similar recalibration for the government's Waste-to-Energy auction took only a few weeks before activities resumed.

"In fact, if you notice, for the Special Auction for Waste-to-Energy, it only took us about two to three weeks to resume the auction activities," she said.

She added that developer interest in the Waste-to-Energy auction remains robust, prompting the DOE to raise the auctioned capacity to 400 megawatts from the original 230 MW.

"(There’s a) long list (of interested bidders) that’s why we increased the auction capacity from 230 megawatts to 400 megawatts," Guevara said when asked whether developers had expressed interest.