The third Green Energy Auction (GEA-3) for geothermal, impounding hydro, and pumped-storage hydropower is expected to conclude before the end of the year.
During a recent budget hearing, the Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Rowena Guevara assured the Senate that this auction would facilitate the integration of additional renewables into the energy mix by 2029.
“Our target for the Green Energy Auction 3 is to finish it before the end of the year such that the pumped storage hydro, [more than] 3,000 megawatts (MW), will be able to come in five years from now,” she said.
Senate Energy Committee chairperson Senator Pia Cayetano emphasized the demand for the next auction as many investors are waiting.
“I understand we have investors who are ready to get it done. And we need it because this will address Sen. Risa’s (Hontiveros) and my concern, and all the other renewable energy advocates’ concerns because we’ll have the storage,” Cayetano elaborated.
“We keep on saying that is the problem why we cannot fully embrace renewables as fast as we want to,” she added.
GEA-3 focuses on the renewable energy (RE) technologies that are non-feed-in-tariff (FIT). This includes geothermal, impounding hydro, and pumped-storage hydro.
The auction will also cover the run-of-river hydro technology that is FIT-eligible.
According to the DOE, the non-FIT eligible renewables are the impounding hydro with 699 megawatts (MW), the 3,120 MW pumped storage hydro, the and the 380 MW geothermal.
The geothermal and impounding hydro would can help dependable renewables to serve as the baseload for energy mix.
“With pumped storage providing 3,120MW of flexible storage and generation, it provides the ability for the grid to manage variable RE (VRE) and allow more VREs to be included in the energy mix,” the DOE explained.
The agency also aims to begin delivering impounding and pumped storage hydro by 2028 to 2030, while geothermal technologies would be around 2024 to 2030.
Meanwhile, the estimated 200 MW capacity from the run-of-river hydro may be auctioned as it’s aimed to have a target delivery starting 2026 to 2028.