Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) is looking at developing nuclear power in line with the policy of President Rodrigo Duterte to embrace nuclear power “as an option in the energy mix.”
Meralco will be the first private sector player in the country’s power industry to build nuclear power options through the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs).
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This is seen as a follow-through measure to Executive Order No. 116 issued on the issue.
Meralco President and CEO Ray C. Espinosa said they are looking at “nuclear power”as the next fuel source, but pointed out that “we can get nuclear power generation plants up and running earlier than 10 years from now.”
The SMRs can have capacity of 300 megawatts or less and can be installed in off-grid areas “ given the archipelagic frame of the country’s energy market.”
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Long gestation period is required for the deployment of nuclear power technologies that could be 10 years or even longer before the SMRs could become commercially viable for installations as a power capacity source.
The modular nuclear power facilities are being targeted in chosen sites in various parts of the country in the next 6-7 years and the areas include Sulu, Palawan and at the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) in Northern Luzon. (AW)
