DOE wants shorter than three-months SIS process for power projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) is batting for an issuance of system impact study (SIS) for power projects that shall be shorter than three months, so the country can further speed up developments in the renewable energy (RE) sector.

According to Energy Secretary Raphael P. M. Lotilla, the length of SIS application process for power project developers – primarily those in the renewable energy (RE) sector – has already improved on 3-6 months duration, but the aim is to make that even faster.

He qualified that an accelerated evaluation and approval of the SIS applications of project sponsor-firms will have to be discussed accordingly by the energy department with system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

“The good news is that: when the President has started his term, the length of waiting was two (2) years for a system impact study; now it is down to 3-6 months. And with NGCP’s cooperation, we want to bring it down further so that the needed capacity for generation can be put up in as quickly as possible,” the energy chief stressed.

The conduct of SIS primarily gauges the impact of the proposed interconnection of new or added capacities in the reliability of the transmission system.

In recent years, many project developers in the RE sector have been raising hell on the very lengthy and difficult process of securing SIS and such had been pointed to as among the factors contributing to delays in their projects.

Because of that, the DOE has prodded NGCP to act on the SIS application backlogs and ensure that the issuance of this part of project permitting shall be slashed to at least six months.

From then on, industry players have noted that the NGCP process on SIS issuance already made considerable progress; and while there are some SIS applications that are still taking longer than six months prior to approval, that was still seen as a major improvement from the two-year approval process in recent years.

Lotilla previously urged NGCP to employ strategic approaches on its SIS evaluation and approvals – and one of the technological innovations he proposed would be deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

In line with the government’s call, NGCP instituted “technology clustering approach” on managing SIS applications – and that system entails grouping together power plants with a common connection point or study area.

As emphasized by NGCP, the ‘clustering strategy’ targets to streamline the process and accelerate the evaluation of multiple projects, thus, enhancing the overall efficiency and reducing the waiting time for potential power plant developers.

The transmission company expounded that the SIS serves as a “critical assessment that determines the capacity of the power grid to accommodate a new generator, and identifies necessary improvements such as additional transmission lines, transformers, or substations.”