THE Department of Energy (DoE) has assured lawmakers that the third Green Energy Auction (GEA-3) will be completed within the year.
At the budget hearing on Wednesday, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said completing the auction before the end of the year “will allow the pumped storage hydro, which is more than 3,000 megawatts (MW), to be operational within the next five years.”
Sen. Pia Cayetano, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, said many investors are waiting for the next GEA.
“I understand we have investors ready to do it. We need it because this will address Senator Risa Hontiveros’ and my concerns, as well as all the other renewable energy advocates’ concerns. After all, we’ll have the storage,” Cayetano said. “We keep on saying that is the problem, and why can we not fully embrace renewables as fast as we want to?”
GEA-3 covers non-feed-in-tariff (Non-FIT) eligible renewable energy technologies like geothermal, impounding hydro and pumped-storage hydro under Department Circular DC2023-10-0029.
The order lists auction policy and guidelines for the non-FIT RE technologies in the GEA program. GEA-3 will also cover run-of-river (ROR) Hydro, a FIT-eligible RE technology.
The estimated capacities for Non-FIT Eligible RE technologies are 699 megawatts from impounding hydro, 3,120 MW from pumped storage hydro, and 380 MW from geothermal.
With pumped storage providing 3,120 MW of flexible storage and generation, the grid can manage variable RE (VRE) and include more VREs in the energy mix.
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