Senate OKs bill fast-tracking energy projects

The 24-man Senate passed yesterday on third and final reading a bill which sought to lower the costs of electricity in the country and build a robust energy sector “by eliminating red-tape or bureaucratic inefficiencies, redundancies and overlaps in the energy sector.”

Senate Bill No. 1439, or the “Energy Virtual One Stop Shop (EVOSS) Act of 2017,” sponsored and authored by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate energy committee, was approved with 13 affirmative votes, one negative vote and no abstention.

The bill was co-authored by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri.

“This legislation seeks to streamline the permitting process of new energy generation projects, thus cutting the length of the permitting process in half,” Gatchalian said.

Currently, developers of run-of-river hydro plants in the country have to secure 359 signagures from 74 regulatory agencies and attached bureaus in a permitting process that takes around 1,340 days or three and a half years to complete, Gatchalian said.

He said the bill mandates the establishment of the Energy Virtual One Stop-Shop (EVOSS) under the supervision of the Department of Energy (DOE).

The EVOSS is an on-line system that “allows single submission and synchronous processing of required data and information and provides a single decision making portal for the evaluation of new power generation projects.”

Under the bill, the EVOSS would ensure the “secure, accessible and paperless” processing of documentary requirements, assessment and payment of charges and fees, status updates and progress monitoring, not only for applicants, but also for national and local government offices and entities involved in the permitting process of energy generation projects.