The Energy Regulatory Commission released over the weekend the preliminary green energy auction reserve price for biomass waste-to-energy projects at P6.4968 per kilowatt-hour.
ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said the agency would hold a virtual public consultation on the biomass WTE on June 1.
The ERC based its preliminary computation on a 10-megawatt installed capacity for WTE projects, the average capacity of the ongoing development of WTE projects with service contracts from the Department of Energy as of April 2023.
It also based its price assumption on the WTE operations and maintenance cost of P49.389 million for WTE using anaerobic digestion.
Dimalanta said the final GEAR for biomass WTE would be released in time for the issuance of the GEAR-2, which would be out prior to the June 19 Green Energy Auction Program date.
The ERC recently completed the public consultations for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao on the preliminary GEAR 2.
Some issues raised during the public consultations were the low capacity factor for solar technologies, low installed capacity per wind turbine, availability and transportation of feedstock for biomass and inclusion of inflation in the calculation of rates.
The GEAR prices serve as the ceiling price for the GEAP 2 where the DOE will offer a total capacity of 11,600 megawatts in renewable energy installation target including 3,600 MW for 2024, 3,600 MW for 2025 and 4,400 MW for 2026.
The agency set the GEAR price for different solar technologies including rooftop solar at P4.7156 per kWh, ground-mounted solar at P4.2395 per Kwh and floating solar at P4.7565 per kWh.
The ERC also set the GEAR price for wind at P5.9823 per kWh and biomass at P5.1475 per kWh.
GEAP-2 will auction 2,025 MW of ground-mounted solar, 235 MW of roof-mounted solar, 1,200 MW of offshore wind and 140 MW of biomass in 2024.
Around 2,140 MW of ground-mounted solar capacity will be auctioned to developers in 2025 followed by 260 MW of roof-mounted solar, 1,170 MW of onshore wind and 30 MW of biomass.
It will offer 160 MW roof-top mounted solar to investors at 160 MW for Luzon, 45 MW for Visayas and 30 MW for Mindanao.