The Department of Energy may adjust the conduct of the Green Energy Auction Program from the original schedule of Aug. 21, 2024 with the issuance of a new circular clarifying the policy for non-feed in -tariff renewable energy technologies.“There is a need to clarify that, from the set of parameters and criteria, the ERC shall promulgate the rules on GEA for non-FIT eligible RE technology auction pricing methodology,” it said.
ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said the circular effectively adjusts the timeline, and they expect the release of the approved prime determination technology for non-FIT RE by early June. The ERC is supposed to release the PDM, based on the original schedule, on April 29, 2024. The circular said that after evaluation of the GEA offers, the DOE would endorse the respective price offers to the ERC.The ERC will then evaluate the offers within 60 days upon receipt of the DOE endorsement and evaluate the said offers based on its approved PDM for non-FIT eligible RE technologies.“After the ERC completes its evaluation and endorses the price offers to the DOE, the latter will confirm which bidders’ price offers are deemed acceptable,” the circular read.
It said the winning bidders for each auction round of non-FIT eligible RE technology will be those price offers that have been evaluated and found consistent by the ERC with its PDM. The GEA-3 involves the auction of geothermal, impounding and run-of-over hydro and pumped-storage hydro sites totaling 4,399 megawatts on Aug. 21, 2024.