To lure more companies to engage in the generation of electricity in the country, Senator Win Gatchalian is seeking the lifting of the public offering requirement provision in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 or the EPIRA law.

“In order to promote competition and encourage market development, we have to relax some policies such as the public listing which proved to be burdensome to generation companies especially to small renewable energy (RE) gencos that have difficulty in complying,” Gatchalian said.

“Kung mas marami ang mga kumpanya na makakapagbigay ng suplay ng kuryente, mas maigi ito dahil nakasisiguro tayo ng tuloy-tuloy na serbisyo at mas marami tayong mapagkukunan ng suplay ng enerhiya,” the Chairperson of the Senate Energy Committee said.

In filing Senate Bill No. 2217, Gatchalian said Section 43(T) of Republic Act No. 9136, otherwise known as the EPIRA Act no longer serves its purpose.

“The initial purpose of the public offering requirement for generation companies in the EPIRA has been rendered irrelevant given all the developments in the electric power sector. If we were to encourage more investments in generation to meet our demand needs in the next 20 years, it is crucial to eliminate this additional barrier to entry,” Gatchalian said.

In removing this additional requirement or barrier to entry, Gatchalian emphasized the need to attract more investments in the generation sector as the next 20 years will require an additional capacity of 71,817 megawatt (MW) installed capacity by 2040.

The lawmaker added that 9,508MW or 13.24% of the additional total installed capacity will come from renewable energy capacity to meet the 1% renewable portfolio standard requirement under the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.