The Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that it will be conducting the third round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA-3) this year, as part of the Department’s push for increased utilization of the country’s renewable energy (RE) resources and attainment of energy security and reliability.

The Green Energy Auction Program was designed to continuously trigger the increase of renewable energy capacity in the country.

The first round of auction held in 2022 was considered a success after successfully generating almost 2,000 megawatts (MW) of capacities that were committed to deliver energy from 2023 to 2025 at a competitive price lower than or equal to the Green Energy Auction Reserve or GEAR prices set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

The second round conducted in July, however, had a low turnout, with several renewable energy executives previously pointing to the prices set by the ERC as the primary factor behind the outcome.

The GEA-3 will specifically cater to Non-Feed-In-Tariff (Non-FIT) Eligible RE Technologies, i.e., Geothermal, Impounding Hydro and Pumped-Storage Hydro under Department Circular No. DC2023-10-0029 which provides specific auction policy and guidelines for these Non-FIT RE technologies in the Green Energy Auction Program. The GEA-3 will also include run-of-river (ROR) Hydro, which is a FIT-Eligible RE technology.

The indicative timeline of activities for GEA-3 are as follows:

The estimated capacities for Non-FIT Eligible RE Technologies are: 699 MW from Impounding Hydro; 3,120 MW from Pumped-Storage Hydro; and 380 MW from Geothermal. The target Delivery Commencement Period (DCP) for both Impounding Hydro and Pumped-Storage Hydro shall be from 2028 to 2030 while for Geothermal, the DCP shall be from 2024 to 2030.

An estimated 200 MW of RE capacity from ROR Hydro is expected to be auctioned, with a target DCP beginning 2026 to 2028.