Philippines to launch 1st green energy auction

Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star) - December 17, 2020 - 12:00am
https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/12/17/2064269/philippines-launch-1st-green-energy-auction

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is setting the launch of its first green energy auction in mid-2021.

In a webinar Tuesday, National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said the country is pushing through with the green energy auction next year.

“The green energy auction committee has actually convened two weeks ago, the first meeting of the committee to set out the work plan for the first auction scheduled by June 2021,” she said.

Last July, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi signed the green energy tariff program policy to boost renewable energy (RE) development in the country.

The green energy tariff would “provide price signals on the commercial value of electricity generated from RE facilities,” which would be the basis of a benchmark rate for RE in the country.

Meanwhile, the green energy auction would facilitate supply contracting by qualified suppliers with eligible customers under a competitive process.

Initially set at 2,000 megawatts (MW), a higher capacity up for auction is being eyed on the back of strong demand, Dimalanta said.

“Separately, after the green energy auction committee, we met with the [Department of Energy] secretary and he’s thinking of increasing the capacity,” she said.

The strong demand for renewable energy development is evidenced under the Competitive Renewable Energy Zoning (CREZ) of the DOE.

“We saw the number in CREZ… [there were] very high numbers on the capacity, on the potential resource. [The secretary] said may be there’s room to increase that capacity. DOE has the number on demand projections. I’m confident we can support a petition with the ERC for the approval because the numbers are also there,” Dimalanta said.

In 2018, the DOE issued a circular titled Establishment and Development of Competitive Renewable Energy Zones In The Country, which aims to identify several RE zones that will resolve transmission constraints and boost the development of the country’s indigenous resources.

The identified candidate RE Zones will represent geographic areas characterized by high-quality, low-cost RE potential in addition to high levels of private-sector developer interest.

It will also identify a set of transmission expansion and/or upgrade scenarios that enhance the deliverability of energy originating from candidate RE Zones.

“Since the publication of the CREZ report, there are continuing studies by DOE, NREB and NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines). The idea is to annually update information,” DOE-Electric Power Industry Management Bureau senior science research specialist Noriel Christopher Reyes said in the same webinar.