President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is interested on why it takes the privately-owned National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) up to two years and possibly longer to complete so-called system impact studies or SIS and has sent its top man, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, to find out exactly where the hindrances lie.
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), Bersamin heads a government team meeting with the NGCP on the typically protracted period of approval of an SIS which is mandatory in the development of power plants.
The SIS help the NGCP determine the impact of proposed power projects on customer connections in the grid and whether adjustments in the system are needed.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla told reporters at the sidelines of a post-SONA event in Pasay City that the meeting is part of government plans to operationalize the Energy Virtual One Stop Shop (EVOSS) program imposing a timeline on the approval and delivery of permits related to energy projects by the different agencies.
According to Lotilla, SIS applications typically take 1.5 to 2 years to process, especially for projects proposed by renewable energy developers.
“The Executive Secretary is chairing this one. We will be looking at how the transmission concessionaire, the NGCP, is going to specify the 60-day requirement for approval of just the SIS,” Lotilla said.
He explained this was why Bersamin as chair has scheduled the next meeting of the EVOSS steering committee to examine the system impact study mandate.
There are other jurisdictions that have adopted other approaches. For example, making all the data needed for an SIS public and some Australian jurisdictions that’s already out,” Lotilla said.
“In others, accredited private sector SIS service providers have already done and of course there are smarter ways of doing things, from the standpoint of artificial intelligence and ICT (information and communication technologies) so we need to see how they will be able to do that,” Lotilla further said.
However, the DOE gave assurance the committee will first identify with the NGCP how it computes the 60-day SIS approval period.
Lotilla also acknowledged an earlier NGCP explanation that the long waiting period for an SIS approval is due to the fact that less than 50 percent of participants have actually carried out and pursued their projects.
Nevertheless, Lotilla said the NGCP must come up with a way to purge its long list of requirements.
