Green Energy Auction Program

Also known as: GEAP · Green Energy Auction · GEA

Definition

The Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) is the Department of Energy’s competitive procurement program for renewable energy capacity in the Philippines, conducted through successive numbered auction rounds — GEA-1 onward — in which registered developers bid supply prices below technology-specific ceiling prices, with the Energy Regulatory Commission setting the reserve (GEAR) prices and the DOE ranking offers “from the lowest to highest bid prices” per technology until installation targets are met. The program’s guidelines were signed on November 3, 2021 and announced that December as the compliance vehicle of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) framework of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 — the statute this wiki’s Renewable Energy Act of 2008 entry documents — replacing administered feed-in tariff rates with price discovery. (DOE — GEAP guidelines, DOE — GEA-2 results)

The first round, conducted by electronic bidding on June 17, 2022, committed 1,966.93 megawatts for delivery in 2023–2025 at a success rate of 98.35 percent; the second (July 3, 2023) committed 3,580.76 MW for 2024–2026; the third drew bids of some 7,500 MW against a 4,650 MW target, adding non-feed-in-tariff technologies led by pumped storage; and the fourth round, opened in 2025 with the program’s first integrated renewable-energy-and-storage lots, concluded in November 2025 with 10,195 MW awarded across 123 projects — the largest round to date. In February 2026 the DOE announced a ten-year plan of at least 25 gigawatts of additional renewable capacity by 2035, in pursuit of the 35 percent renewable share of generation targeted for 2030 and 50 percent by 2040. (DOE — GEA-1 results, DOE — GEA-3 results, DOE — GEA-4 opening, pv-magazine — GEA-4 final, DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)

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Also Known As

GEAP
Green Energy Auction
GEA

Examples and Analogies

A ceiling under a race: the auction works like a public works tender run in reverse energy form — the ERC fixes a maximum reserve price for each technology, and developers race underneath it; in GEA-2 the ceilings were ₱4.4043 per kilowatt-hour for ground-mounted solar up to ₱6.2683 for biomass waste-to-energy, and every committed megawatt came in at or below the cap. (DOE — GEA-2 results)
From fixed price to discovered price: where the feed-in tariff paid a state-set rate for twelve years, the auction converts subsidy into competition — analysts describing the program as a similar system “with much lower rates,” the migration this wiki’s Renewable Energy Act of 2008 entry records. (Law.asia — FIT for purpose)
One buyer for many sellers: mandated RPS participants are the demand side the auctions serve, and an Opt-In Mechanism lets distribution utilities procure portions of auctioned capacity toward their own RPS minimums — the market architecture the 2021 guidelines installed. (DOE — GEAP guidelines)
Verified program data:
Guidelines: signed November 3, 2021; announced December 10, 2021
GEA-1: bid June 17, 2022; 1,966.93 MW committed; delivery 2023–2025; success rate 98.3465%
GEA-2: bid July 3, 2023; 3,580.76 MW committed (ground solar 1,968.982 MW; onshore wind 1,512.384 MW; floating solar 90 MW; rooftop solar 9.39 MW); delivery 2024–2026
GEA-3: 14 projects and about 7,500 MW of bids against a 4,650 MW installation target; delivery 2025–2035; non-FIT technologies including pumped storage
GEA-4: Notice of Auction posted March 12, 2025; first round with integrated renewable energy and storage (IRESS); final awards November 2025 of 10,195 MW across 123 projects; delivery 2026–2029
GEA-5: announced December 12, 2024; exclusively offshore wind, scheduled for the third quarter of 2025
Pipeline: GEA-6 through GEA-9 across 2026–2027 within a ten-year plan of at least 25 GW by 2035

Usage Scenarios

1. Bidding as a Renewable Developer

A developer registers after the Notice of Auction, bids at or below the ERC-published reserve price for its technology and delivery year, and — if ranked in — posts a performance bond within sixty days and executes the award requirements; failure to post the bond forfeits the award and bars the facility from being re-offered in future auctions. (DOE — GEA-1 results, DOE — GEA-4 opening)

2. Complying with the Renewable Portfolio Standard

Distribution utilities and other RPS-mandated participants source auctioned renewable supply toward their minimum renewable percentages — the compliance mechanism the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 created and this wiki’s National Renewable Energy Board entry traces through its recommending body. (DOE — GEAP guidelines)

3. Setting and Reviewing Ceiling Prices

The ERC computes the Green Energy Auction Reserve prices per technology — the June 2023 GEA-2 reserve schedule, for example — and reviews winning offers before awards issue, the price-control step that keeps discovered tariffs auditable against regulatory benchmarks. (DOE — GEA-2 results, DOE — GEA-3 results)

4. Recovering Auction Costs from Consumers

The National Transmission Corporation applied the Green Energy Auction allowance (GEA-All) with ERC approval on December 12, 2025, adding auction costs to power charges from January 2026 — the pass-through mechanism modeled on the feed-in tariff allowance that preceded it. (Wikipedia — National Transmission Corporation)

5. Tracking the Build-Out Pipeline

Planners and investors follow the round calendar and the technology widening — from the first round’s solar-wind-biomass-hydro offering, through pumped storage and offshore wind, to GEA-8’s canal-top and agrisolar lots — as the forward indicator of the national renewable build-out. (DOE — GEA-5 offshore wind, DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)

Strategies

Ceiling-plus-competition: fixed reserve prices cap consumer exposure while competitive bidding presses beneath them, so the program buys price discovery inside a regulated envelope. (DOE — GEA-2 results)
Annual cadence with rolling targets: successive rounds against dated installation targets let the DOE recalibrate volume and technology yearly — the design the ten-year plan now stretches to 2035. (DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)
Technology broadening: each round widens eligibility — from FIT-era technologies to pumped storage (GEA-3), integrated storage (GEA-4), and offshore wind (GEA-5) — so auctions price the whole renewable-plus-storage stack, not one generator class. (DOE — GEA-3 results, DOE — GEA-5 offshore wind)
Grid-timed delivery: awards carry delivery years matched to installation targets by grid island — GEA-4’s twelve lots across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao for 2026–2029 — binding procurement to transmission reality. (DOE — GEA-4 opening)
Enforcement through finance: performance bonds, forfeiture, and re-offering bars convert winning bids into delivery obligations — the discipline the DOE has since applied against non-performing winners. (DOE — GEA-1 results)

Security and Safety Measures

Energy-security rationale: the program is the procurement engine of the 35-percent-by-2030 and 50-percent-by-2040 renewable targets, the diversification policy through which the state reduces exposure to imported fossil fuel. (DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)
Financial guarantees: performance bonds within sixty days and system impact study requirements before final awards protect the pipeline against speculative bidding. (DOE — GEA-1 results, pv-magazine — GEA-4 final)
Regulatory price review: ERC reserve-price setting and post-auction review keep tariffs within audited bounds before consumer pass-through. (DOE — GEA-3 results)
Transparent cost recovery: the GEA-All line item administered through TransCo places auction costs on the bill as a visible, regulated charge rather than buried cost. (Wikipedia — National Transmission Corporation)
Non-delivery enforcement: in early 2026 the DOE terminated 33 service contracts awarded under the program to a single developer, with penalties reported at about ₱24 billion — the program’s bond-and-forfeit machinery put to its hardest use. (Wikipedia — Solar Philippines)

Historical Context

The program descends from the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, which created both the RPS mandate the auctions serve and the feed-in tariff system the auctions superseded; the FiT years are documented in this wiki’s Renewable Energy Act of 2008 and National Renewable Energy Board entries, and the migration was made policy with the GEAP guidelines signed November 3, 2021 and announced that December. GEA-1 followed within months — 1,966.93 MW committed on the June 17, 2022 electronic bidding, for delivery 2023–2025 — and each succeeding round scaled: GEA-2’s 3,580.76 MW in July 2023, GEA-3’s oversubscribed pumped-storage-led round, and GEA-4, which opened on March 12, 2025 with 9,378 MW plus a first 1,100 MW of storage-paired solar and closed in November 2025 with 10,195 MW awarded across 123 projects, delivery 2026–2029. (DOE — GEAP guidelines, DOE — GEA-1 results, DOE — GEA-2 results, DOE — GEA-4 opening, pv-magazine — GEA-4 final)

The program’s current phase is the ten-year plan announced on February 13, 2026: annual auctions from 2026 offering at least 25 gigawatts of additional capacity with deliveries running to 2035 — GEA-6 for floating solar and wind from the first quarter of 2026 (picking up unsubscribed GEA-4 capacity), GEA-7 for rooftop and storage-paired solar, GEA-8 for canal-top, agrisolar, and fishpond-stilt solar with agriculture agencies, and GEA-9 from 2027 for biomass, geothermal, solar, hydropower, and onshore wind. The DOE presented the pipeline through its Renewable Energy Management Bureau as the instrument by which the 35-by-2030 generation target is to be met. (DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan, pv-magazine — GEA-4 final)

Challenges and Controversies

Delivery Risk and Terminated Contracts

Auction success has outrun project execution: in early 2026 the DOE terminated 33 service contracts awarded under the program to Solar Philippines entities for “willful neglect and non-compliance,” with penalties of about ₱24 billion, and the Energy Secretary filed a complaint with the Department of Justice over what she described as ghost contracts — the largest enforcement action in the program’s history and a warning that awarded megawatts are not yet built megawatts. (Wikipedia — Solar Philippines)

Consumer Cost Pass-Through

Like the feed-in tariff before it, the program’s costs reach the public bill — from January 2026 through the GEA-All charge TransCo applied with ERC approval in December 2025 — reopening the consumer-scrutiny debate that accompanied the FiT allowance’s rise to ₱0.20 per kilowatt-hour in November 2025, a history this wiki’s Renewable Energy Act of 2008 entry records. (Wikipedia — National Transmission Corporation, Law.asia — FIT for purpose)

Demand and Supply Mismatches

The rounds have swung both ways: GEA-1 cleared 98.35 percent of its offering, but GEA-3 drew 7,500 MW of bids against a 4,650 MW target while biomass won no commitments at all in GEA-2 — volatility that has left unsubscribed capacity to roll into later rounds and prompted the round specialization of the 2026 pipeline. (DOE — GEA-1 results, DOE — GEA-2 results, DOE — GEA-3 results)

The Targets Gap

The auctions are the government’s principal answer to the gap between the 35-percent-by-2030 generation target and the roughly 22 percent renewable share of installed capacity recorded as of 2023 — a gap analysts attribute to grid, permitting, and financing constraints that procurement volume alone cannot close, the standing critique this wiki’s National Renewable Energy Board entry documents. (DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)