Solar Para Sa Bayan gets Senate nod

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate yesterday approved on third and final reading a bill granting a 25-year franchise to Solar Para Sa Bayan (SPSB), a firm that seeks to put up and operate micro-grid power systems in unserved and underserved areas in the country.

Approved with 16 affirmative votes and one abstention was House Bill 8179, which seeks to grant a franchise to operate to SPSB, owned by Leandro Leviste, son of Sen. Loren Legarda.

Legarda abstained from the voting.

The measure was reported out to the plenary last week by Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public services.

It seeks to allow the SPSB to “construct, install, establish, operate and maintain distributable power technologies and microgrid systems…to improve access to sustainable energy.”

The Department of Energy was tasked to determine the unserved and underserved areas in the country where SPSB can provide solar power.

The grant of franchise to SPSB also does not revoke existing franchises nor result in the waiver of rights from the franchised distribution utilities when the firm operates microgrids in unserved and underserved areas.