SOLAR Philippines has bagged most of the renewable energy (RE) contracts to develop 2,000-megawatt (MW) capacities under the country’s first Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP).
Data from the Department of Energy (DOE) website showed that Solar Philippines won 70 percent of all RE capacity in the DOE auction, or 1380MW out of 1996MW across all technologies, and 91 percent of all the solar capacity, or 1350MW out of 1490MW.
These are the 200MW Concepcion Tarlac 2 of Solar Philippines Commercial Rooftop Projects, Inc. (SPCRPI), 280MW Santa Rosa Nueva Ecija 2 of Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp., 450MW Tayabas solar power of SPCRPI, 30MW Calatagan wind power of Solar Philippines Calatagan Corp., 300MW Kananga-Ormoc solar power of Solar Philippines Visayas Corp., and 120MW General Santos solar power of SPCRPI.
Last week, Solar Philippines said it has submitted power contract offers for its proposed 10 gigawatts, or 10,000MW, of solar projects that are targeted for commercial operations mostly in 2025 and 2026.
The DOE said there were 24 bidders, eight were from solar, another eight from wind, seven were from run-of-river hydro, and one was from biomass. The auction was held last June 17.
The following power projects were also cleared by the agency. These are the 60MW Kapangan hydro of Cordillera Hydroelectric Power Corp., 20MW Sablan 1 hydro of Hedcor, Inc., 40MW PAVI Green Naga solar of PAVI Green Renewable Energy, Inc., 88.980MW Talugtug solar of Greenergy Solutions, Inc., 70MW Caparispisan II wind of Amihan Renewble Energy Corp., 160MW Balaoi abd Caunayan wind of Bayog Wind Power Corp., 100.8MW Kalayaan 2 wind of CleanTech Global Renewables, Inc., 13.2MW Nabas 2 wind of Petrowind Energy, Inc., 3.7MW Malitbog hydro of Philnewriver Power Corp., 3.7MW Silo-O hydro of PPC, 4.85MW Mat-I 1 hydro of Philnew Hydro Power Corp. (PHPC), 6.9MW Clarin hydro of PHPC, and 3.4MW biomass cogeneration of Cotabato Sugar Central Company Inc.
The winning bidders were ranked based on their offers from the lowest to highest bid price and stacked corresponding to the respective RE technology per grid. They will be awarded with 20-year power supply contracts.
“All winning bidders shall submit to the DOE the original copy of their respective affidavit of undertaking and the corresponding performance bond within 35 days and 60 calendar days, respectively, from the date of posting of this notice,” the June 24 notice, signed by Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, stated.
Cusi said the country’s first green energy “is a significant step in encouraging more power generation investments in renewable energy, while protecting the interest of Filipino consumers—a testament to the country’s commitment to developing indigenous and clean sources of energy at competitive prices.”
The agency said the success of this competitive process will set the benchmark for the future auction rounds, as the resulting Green Energy Tariff (GET) will reflect the value of electricity.
The Energy Regulatory Commission has already set the ceiling rate for the first round of GEAP, with the Green Energy Auction Reserve (GEAR) price for solar at P3.6779 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), wind at P6.0584 per kWh, biomass at P5.0797 per kWh, and run-of-river hydro at P5.4913 per kWh.
Through the GEAP, the DOE paved the way for immediate and timely investments; supported the development of, and increased financing access for new or additional capacities under a competitive process; as well as implemented programs that promote environmental sustainability, which will aid the country’s transition to renewable energy.