RE auction eyed later this year
Credit to Author: JORDEENE B. LAGARE| Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 16:25:39 +0000
THE Department of Energy (DoE) is targeting to auction off 2,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy (RE) by year-end to entice more investors to develop RE facilities in the Philippines.
In a chance interview on Tuesday, National Renewable Energy (NREB) Chairman Monalisa Dimalanta said their aim is to roll out the policy on bidding out 2,000 MW of renewables “within the year.”
The NREB, the bureau guiding the department on the implementation of RE initiatives in the country, will hold a board meeting this week to formalize and present their recommendation regarding this concept to Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Dimalanta told reporters.
Last month, Cusi said the Energy department would bid off 2,000 MW of RE as part of capacity-building efforts.
“We want to build 2,000 MW of RE in 10 years [through] RE auction and green energy rate to motivate investors in the RE program,” he had said.
It would be taken from the agency’s additional capacity target of 10,000 MW by 2040, which the Energy chief had said might be adjusted, depending on the country’s power requirements.
“Based on the instructions of the secretary, the main objective is promote more investments in the RE sector considering that it won’t have feed-in tariffs (FiT) and another round of feed-in tariffs anymore so it’s really to attract more investments and the idea is to create a market for them to facilitate their access to market for the renewable energy,” Dimalanta explained.
According to the NREB head, it will be up to the bureau whether the allotted capacity will be filled up by various RE sources, including wind, solar, ocean, run-of-river hydropower and biomass.
“There will be an auction. RE developers can participate if their projects can supply baseload, if they participate in the auction of baseload or mid-merit,” she said.
A price cap will also be in place and the capacity obtained from the bidding will be allocated to other distribution utilities (DUs), which are required to source or produce at least 1 percent of their energy requirement from eligible RE sources under the DoE’s Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS).
At present, the DoE is holding workshops with DUs to identify their requirements under the RPS.
The NREB will release a draft circular of the RE auction for public consultation before institutionalizing the program, which Cusi previously said would be different from the FiT scheme wherein subsidies were provided to RE developers.
The FiT program was outlined in Republic Act 9513, also known as the “Renewable Energy Act of 2008,” which aims to accelerate the development of RE sources in the country.
Cusi has expressed confidence that the country can encourage more entities to go into renewables through this scheme. “We are of course very confident because this is to encourage developers.”