Power industry regulators are urged to pursue a comprehensive implementation of the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop, or EVOSS, system, which presently is still at only an 85 percent completion rate, to lure more renewable energy, or RE, investments.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, said on Monday that the full EVOSS system rollout would make it easier for prospective investors to develop renewable energy projects in the country.

“The environmental and economic benefits that we can derive from using renewable energy are enormous. Aside from generating cleaner energy, renewable fuels would diversify our energy supply and would significantly reduce our dependence on imports. This is why we pushed for the enactment of the EVOSS because the country will greatly benefit from this,” he said in a press statement.

Main author

Gatchalian was the main author of Republic Act 11234 or an Act Establishing The Energy Virtual One-Shop to streamline The Permitting Process of Power Generation, Transmission, And Distribution Projects.

Enacted in 2019, the EVOSS Act implementation remains slow at 85 percent as of November 2023 as per the Department of Energy, or DoE.

In addition, Gatchalian stressed that more needs to be done to increase budget utilization for the EVOSS system.

He noted that while the budget disbursement rate for the EVOSS Act increased to 89 percent in September 2023 from 13 percent in 2022. On the other hand, the obligation rate decreased to 48 percent in September 2023 from 83 percent in 2022.

Aggressive implementation

“The DoE should be aggressive in its implementation because EVOSS aims to eliminate any foreseeable impediment to renewable energy investments,” Gatchalian said.

For example, permitting could be sped up through the EVOSS system, which seeks to eliminate red tape in the energy sector and create a more favorable investment climate for the energy sector.

It can be recalled that the BloombergNEF Climate 2023 report recognized the Philippines among the top 5 most attractive emerging markets for investments in the power sector.

After making substantial progress in transitioning to renewable energy or RE over the last two years, the Philippines moved up six spots to No. 4, following India, China and Chile.