The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has asked lawmakers to consider suspending the public listing requirement for energy companies for small renewable energy (RE) developers.
This could help enable the entry of additional power projects in the country, Monalisa Dimalanta, ERC chairperson, said at a hearing last week conducted by the Joint Congressional Energy Commission (JCEC).
“We have a pending request to the JCEC on this matter involving the public offer requirement or the public listing requirement that’s in Section 43 of EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001). This provision of law requires a generation company to make a public offer or a public listing of at least 15 percent of its common shares in our stock market,” Dimalanta said.
However, the RE Act was only enacted in 2008 and the EPIRA did not “contemplate” the emergence of small RE companies, which may find it challenging to undergo public listing, the ERC noted.
Dimalanta said public listing is a requirement to obtain a certificate of compliance.
According to the ERC, the JCEC may consider suspending such requirement for small RE facilities and those that are not part of a portfolio of projects nor are they under a big developer.
“If the requirement can be suspended in the meantime… we know that the permanent solution is an amendment to the law but if that cannot be done quickly, we hope that the committee can consider the suspension,” Dimalanta said.
Data from the Department of Energy showed that as of end-2022, the total installed on-grid capacity from RE — composed of geothermal, hydro, biomass, solar and wind technologies — is 8,264 megawatts (MW), or 29.24 percent of the 28,258 MW overall installed on-grid capacity in the Philippines, excluding battery storage and diesel-battery hybrid systems.
