By Lenie Lectura - February 20, 2018
TEN power projects, including the
multibillion peso Visayas-Mindanao Interconnection Project (VMIP), are vying to
be declared by the energy department as “Project of National Significance”
under Executive Order (EO) 30.
EO 30 states that concerned
government agencies shall act upon applications for permits involving Energy
Projects of National Significance (EPNS) not exceeding a 30-day period. If no
decision is made within the specified processing timeframe, the application is
deemed approved by the concerned agency.
This effectively reduced the time to
process the permits needed for power projects to take off.
“There are 10 applications,”
Undersecretary Jesus Cristino Posadas of the Department of Energy (DOE) said.
“We also received an application for
the VMIP,” he added, but declined to identify the other projects. “These
10 must comply with the necessary requirements.”
Posadas said some of the projects
involve renewable energy.
In order for an energy project to be
considered among the EPNS, power-generation and -transmission projects must
have a capital investment of at least P3.5 billion, significant contribution to
the country’s economic development, significant consequential economic impact,
significant potential contribution to the country’s balance of payments,
significant impact on the environment, complex technical processes and
engineering designs and significant infrastructure requirements.
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi
said there is one power project that is close to being declared as EPNS.
“There is already a company. I just
want to make sure nothing can be said against this,” Cusi said. “I think it’s a
geothermal project. It is still under thorough evaluation, including the
background.”
He added the geothermal project,
with a capacity of more than 100 megawatts, is “in the north.”
Cusi explained the geothermal
project is a clean source of energy that could qualify as baseload plant,
running on 24/7 basis.
“We also want [a] clean source. We
want one that will qualify as baseload,” Cusi said. “It qualifies to all those
requirements, not just value of the investment.”
The VMIP, meanwhile, involves the interconnection
of the Visayas and Mindanao via Cebu and Zamboanga. The converter stations in
the Visayas and Mindanao will be in Sibonga, Cebu, and Aurora, Zamboanga del
Sur, respectively. The project is estimated to be completed in 46
months with an estimated cost of P52 billion.
The Visayas-Mindanao interconnection
project is in support of the government’s vision to interconnect the major
grids into a single national grid, which is expected to help improve the
overall power-supply security in the country as sharing of reserves will
already become possible. The project also aims to reinforce the operation of
the electricity market by maximizing the use of available energy resources and
additional generation capacities in the Visayas and Mindanao, which include the
renewable-energy resources.
Signed by President Duterte in June
last year, EO 30 also creates the Energy Investment Coordinating Council—led by
the DOE, which will spearhead and coordinate national government efforts to
harmonize, integrate and streamline regulatory processes, requirements and
forms relevant to the development of energy investments in the country.
Other members of the council include
representatives from various national government agencies and relevant energy
institutions (e.g., the departments of Environment and Natural Resources,
Finance, Justice and Transportation, National Electrification Administration,
National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, National Power Corp., National
Transmission Corp., Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, Palawan Council for
Sustainable Development and other relevant government agencies).
“It is the policy of the State to
ensure a continuous, adequate and economic supply of energy. Hence, an
efficient and effective administrative process for energy projects of national
significance should be developed in order to avoid unnecessary delays in the
implementation of the Philippine Energy Plan,” the EO said.
Within the DOE, permits for all
energy projects are processed within 25 days. Securing a permit from the
DOE, however, is only 10 percent of the entire permitting process.
According to Sen. Sherwin T.
Gatchalian, also the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, it takes 1,340
days to secure a permit, 359 signatures needed for the permits to be signed and
involves 74 different agencies, including the DOE.
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