By Komfie Manalo
Executives from Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said the Philippines should embrace nuclear energy beyond the proposed micromodular reactors (MMRs) and adopt conventional nuclear reactors to hit its energy goals of 1,2000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2022.
In a press briefing, Meralco executive vice president and chief operations officer Ronnie Aperocho said the 1,200 MW nuclear energy target is too ambitious for MMR technology alone but should include larger nuclear reactors in the mix.
“If the government has this plan to have 1,200 MW of nuclear (power) by 2032, micro modular (reactor) is not enough. We need to look into SMR and maybe conventional nuclear,” Aperocho said.
Under the Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Energy Scenario (CES) 1, the country is projected to have installed 1,200 MW of nuclear capacity by 2032, an additional 1,200 MW capacity by 2035, and another 2,400 MW by 2050.
Aperocho said nuclear energy technologies should be included in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) review. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. urged lawmakers to revisit the law to address the country’s high electricity rates.
“Talking about EPIRA, supporting BBM’s (Bongbong Marcos) mandate to build infrastructure, we think that (the) nuclear power plant is part of that infrastructure for us to really address the power problems in the country,” he added.
Meralco chairman and chief executive officer Manuel V. Pangilinan also told reporters that with the complexity of developing MMR and SMR, the deployment of these technologies might be pushed back.
“It turns out to be more difficult than anticipated… so the timetable for deployment of SMR or MMR could be moved back as far as 2032 to 2035,” he said.
Meralco is in talks with different global nuclear industry players from the United States, Canada, and South Korea to explore partnerships in atomic energy development in the Philippines.
Meralco aims to strengthen its partnership with these countries, particularly by developing local talents in the nuclear energy sector.
Meralco's first vice president and head of networks, Froilan Savet, also confirmed that the company would go to Ontario next week to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the nuclear scholarship program.
“As part of that trip, we will also go to Illinois to sign an MOU with the University of Illinois,” Savet said.
Pangilinan added Meralco would initially send its employees for the nuclear scholarship program and would also open this opportunity for engineers in the DOE.
“But eventually, we’ll have to work with the schools to send their engineers, not necessarily nuclear engineers—we would like to send more. And we have written to DOE if they would like to nominate three or five of their own engineers who will fall under this program but at no cost to them,” the Meralco chief said.
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