By MYRNA M. VELASCO

The Department of Energy (DOE) is scheduling this September the second round of auction for off-grid sites that will target the provision of electricity access to more than 12,200 households.

In a media statement, the department indicated that the submission and opening of technical and financial tenders will be by the fourth week of September; while the call for interested bidders and submission of expressions of interest and prequalification will be August.

Following the submission and opening of offers, the DOE is targeting to issue the notices of award to the winning bidders by December this year, following a routine post-bid evaluation process.

The department specified that the 2nd competitive selection process (CSP) for Microgrid System Provider (MGSP) will cover the electrification of 41 lots, which essentially comprises of 75 unserved and underserved areas in various parts of the country.

“The 75 identified areas covering a total of 12,212 households, were part of the 98 identified areas clustered into 49 lots previously offered during the 1st round of the MGSP-CSP in November 2023,” the department said.

It is worth noting that in the first bid round, only one investing-party had cornered sites for electrification across Palawan., Quezon and Cebu; hence, there are remaining areas that are still up for grabs by other interested investors in the next batch of auction.

The DOE qualified “these areas are viable for MGSP given their higher demand, and most of the households are not widely dispersed.”

The agency similarly indicated that the forthcoming bid activity “will follow a streamlined and transparent process that will allow MGSP proponents to survey the areas and prepare their proposal.”

Based on the CSP terms of reference for MGSP, a 90-day timeline had been prescribed “to complete the conduct of CSP from the pre-qualification until the submission of the awarded contract to the Energy Regulatory Commission.”

A CSP, in particular, refers to a transparent tendering mechanism which warrants the selection of qualified bids that will have the ‘least cost impact’ once the winning offered tariffs are reflected in the electric bills of consumers.

Under the 2023-2032 National Total Electrification Roadmap (NTER), at least 407 areas had been demarcated in the propounded energization of off-grid domains – and of the total, 285 had been classified as ‘unserved areas’ with 20,103 household-beneficiaries; while 122 are underserved sites covering 20,207 households.

According to the energy department, “these far-flung or remote areas have the presence of economic activities that require the much-needed electricity services.”