Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
The Department of
Energy (DOE) is laying down the rules on open and competitive selection process
(OCSP) in the award of service contracts (SCs) to fresh round of renewable
energy (RE) project developments.
In a draft Circular,
the department stipulated that “all areas for open and competitive selection
shall be posted by the DOE in its website.”
And in the event when
new areas for SCs have been identified, it added that “the DOE shall update its
website and may include them in the areas to be published in preparation for
the conduct of open and competitive selection of awarding RE contracts.”
It was further
specified that “invitations for open and competitive selection shall be
published once every week for three (3) consecutive weeks in at least two (2)
newspapers of general circulation.”
The draft Circular
states general condition on the conduct of bidding for new RE service
contracts, and the DOE stated that separate guidelines shall be issued on the
OCSP policy.
The auction of service
contracts, the DOE further explained, shall cover both the award of contracts
for RE developments on pre-development as well as those already at
“development” stages.
To differentiate, RE
ventures on pre-development stages are those involving “preliminary assessment
and feasibility up to financial closing and declaration of commerciality of the
RE project; while ‘development or commercial stage’ would refer to that phase
when development and production or utilization of energy resources is already
achieved, ranging from construction and installation of relevant facilities up
to their operation point.
The eventual OCSP
guidelines, it was stressed, shall include information such as, but not limited
to: The map of the area being declared open for RE project proposals;
instructions to RE applicants on the requirements for RE contract proposal; the
schedules including the deadline to submit, the date of opening and period of
evaluation of RE project proposals; and criteria for evaluation and the
corresponding percentage or weight.
There is also a
provision that warrants direct negotiation with prospective RE developers, in
case expected submissions had not been met.
Such shall be exercised
if: One, no proposal was received by the Renewable Energy Management Bureau;
two, no one among the applicants was able to meet the legal requirements as
determined by the RE-REC (RE Contract Review and Evaluation Committee); or
three, when one or more applicants have met the legal requirements but after the
evaluation of technical and financial proposals, no applicant was able to meet
either the technical or financial requirements, as certified by the RE-REC.
The draft Circular and
proposed OCSP guidelines are still up for public consultations and stakeholder
comments, hence, further fine-tuning may still be integrated in the final
version of the RE contracting rules.
No comments:
Post a Comment