ERC to cut capex approval time to 9 months
Getting approvals for capital expenditure applications will no longer take years as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) works to integrate all its processes in the national government’s virtual one-stop shop, the regulator announced earlier this week.
According to the ERC, integrating capex applications into the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (Evoss) will cut approval time to 270 days.
“The beauty of this shared platform lies not only in easier filing, but also the tracking of applications. Applicants can actually check the status of their requests,” ERC chair and chief executive Monalisa Dimalanta said.
She also emphasized that if her office failed to complete processing for “certain permits” within a prescribed timeline, then these would be deemed approved.
Evoss, which was created through Republic Act No. 11234 in 2019, is an online system that streamlines applications and permitting processes for power generation, transmission and distribution projects.
It also stores other information and permits shared by government agencies involved in specific approvals.
Apart from capex applications and approvals, the ERC also expects to integrate applications for certificates of compliance, power supply agreements, ancillary service procurement agreements, and microgrid system provider operations into the Evoss sytem.
Retail electricity suppliers may soon also get their licenses through the Evoss, the ERC said.
At present, only the ERC, Department of Energy, National Electrification Administration and certain other government agencies and private power utilities have their respective processes integrated into Evoss. INQ
