MANILA -- Cutting down on the bureaucracy involved in power sector investments will redound to cheaper rates and help achieve the projected 43,000 megawatts (MW) additional capacity needed by the Philippines by 2040, the year it is eyed to become a high-income economy, a top energy official said.
This is the reason why the government continues to put in measures that would encourage more investments in the power sector.
Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said Republic Act (RA) 11234, otherwise known as the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (EVOSS), is among the measures targeted to entice more investments in the sector.
EVOSS, signed into law last March 8, streamlines the permitting process for energy-focused businesses.
Fuentebella, in an interview by the Philippine News Agency (PNA) after the public consultation for the law's Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) in Taguig City Tuesday, said all the committed and indicative projects to date are expected to meet future demand.
Committed projects are those that already have funding and specific details on capacity and expected period of operation while indicative projects are those that are yet to be funded.
"We are now trying to breach the gap through the EVOSS law and the IRR to fast-track the permitting process for both the committed and indicative projects," he said.
Fuentebella explained that if putting up power plants can be made faster and cheaper, then power generators will be able to offer lower rates during the competitive selection process.
"If the permitting process is fast then construction of power plants will be fast and demand will immediately be answered," he added.
Relatively, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who authored the Senate version of the bill that later became the EVOSS, said shortage of power supply forces distribution utilities (DUs) to buy supply from the spot market, where prices can shoot up, or from more expensive technologies.
These options, he said, result to higher retail electricity prices.
In Senate Bill 1286, filed in 2016, Gatchalian said an hour of power outage costs the service and industrial sectors, excluding mining, quarrying, and construction, about PHP4.49 billion. (PNA)
