Philippine Energy Policy Wiki

MOC: Competitive Selection Process

Status
operative
Confidence
high

One live instrument sitting on top of an eight-year chain. Every entry here answers the same question — how a distribution utility or electric cooperative must competitively procure power supply for its captive market — under EPIRA (Digest: RA 9136 — Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) ), which gives the DOE the policy mandate and the ERC the rate-approval role. The chain matters more than usual on this page: the current circular’s repeal of its four predecessors takes effect only upon the effectivity of ERC guidelines that are not in the corpus, so all four predecessors carry status: superseded with a deliberately blank lapsed-date rather than a date. Treat the superseded entries as historically operative for anything before mid-2023 and read the current circular for anything after.

Belongs here: a circular whose subject is the CSP itself — the obligation, its exemptions, or the bidding machinery (TPBAC, third-party auctioneers, the DOE CSP portal). Circulars that merely invoke CSP as one step in a larger regime — the Green Energy Auction, the ERSP lease-to-generate track, microgrid selection — belong in their own sections.

In force

  • Digest: DC2023-06-0021 (Mandatory CSP Policy) — Mandatory CSP policy. Requires every DU and EC to procure captive-market supply through a transparent competitive process, and consolidates the whole prior chain into one instrument. Sets the Distribution Development Plan and Power Supply Procurement Plan filing calendar (30 June annually), a minimum two-year lead before PSA expiry, a three-working-day DOE Certificate of Conformity, a 45-day Invitation to Bid validity, and mandatory posting on the DOE CSP e-based portal. NEA issues the EC-specific guidelines and may run a CSP on an EC’s behalf. Exempts NPC off-grid supply, PSALM bilateral contracts, Green Energy Auction opt-ins, embedded generation of 10 MW or less, and emergency power. Start here for any current CSP obligation or exemption. (2023)

Superseded predecessors

Kept as separate entries rather than folded into the lineage line above, because each governed a distinct period and the conditional repeal leaves the end of that period unresolved.

  • Digest: DC2015-06-0008 (First Mandatory CSP Circular) — First mandatory CSP circular. Establishes the original rule: DUs may procure PSAs only through a CSP run by a third party recognized by the ERC, DOE, and — for cooperatives — NEA, on four principles (transparency, competition, least cost, public interest), with demand aggregation, annual conduct, and a uniform ERC-issued PSA template. Expressly non-retroactive to PSAs already approved or filed. Start here for the CSP regime as it stood 2015–2018 and for the origin of the third-party requirement. (2015)
  • Digest: DC2018-02-0003 — CSP policy restated with exemptions. Rebuilds the policy around five governing principles and, for the first time, a Certificate of Exemption route (grant-funded DU-owned generation, negotiated emergency power, GOCC off-grid supply ahead of a New Power Provider, PSALM bilateral contracts). Introduces the five-member Third Party Bids and Awards Committee and the Third Party Auctioneer alternative, the joint TPBAC for aggregated DUs, the 15 March annual DDP filing, CSP observers, and the e-based procurement portal. Start here for where the exemption categories and the TPBAC structure came from. (2018)
  • Digest: DC2021-09-0030 (CSP Amendments, 2021) — 2021 CSP amendments. Extends CSP obligations to power suppliers, refines the five exemptions with hard caps (grant contribution ≤30% of project cost; emergency PSAs ≤1 year at or below the latest ERC-approved tariff; embedded indigenous RE at 10 MW for Luzon DUs and 5 MW for Visayas/Mindanao), adds 13 definitions and a technology-neutrality principle, moves TPBAC selection onto the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (EVOSS) portal, and splits procurement into Track A (public bidding, 180 days) and Track B (unsolicited proposals for new technology, capped at 25% of DU peak demand) with a three-level protest mechanism. Start here for the exemption caps and the two-track structure. (2021)
  • Digest: DC2022-06-0027 — Third Party Auctioneer accreditation. The narrowest of the four: qualification, conflict-of-interest, and accreditation rules for the TPAs that run a CSP on a DU’s behalf — five-year accreditation posted on the DOE CSP portal, absolute versus conditional accreditation depending on disclosed conflicts, and consanguinity limits against DU officers. Start here for who may lawfully run a CSP auction. (2022)

Up: MOC: Regulations