MANILA, Philippines — Distribution utilities and other stakeholders are now assured of faster approvals of their applications for capital expenditures projects following the integration of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)’s systems into the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (EVOSS).
The ERC said the integration promotes the ease of doing business in the energy sector and expedites processes for the implementation of energy projects.
The processing time of ERC for quasi-judicial processes will be reduced to 270 calendar days under the EVOSS.
ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said the move is aligned with the commission’s commitment to the EVOSS system’s objective of ensuring transparency and accountability among government agencies.
“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,” Dimalanta said.
“For certain permits, if we are not able to complete the processing within the prescribed timeline, it would be deemed approved,” she said.
The EVOSS is an online system that unifies and streamlines applications and permitting processes for power generation, transmission, and distribution projects.
Created through Republic Act 11234, the EVOSS serves as a repository of information and permits, shared by all agencies and entities involved in the approval process.
The system also offers paperless transactions, utilizing online payment system for all fees imposed on applications.
The ERC said its employees, along with resource persons from the Department of Energy, conducted last Dec. 7 a dry run for the integration process of capex application and its workflow application into the EVOSS.
It assured that more ERC processes will be integrated into the EVOSS.