MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) is exploring the possibility of deploying both small modular reactors (SMRs) and conventional nuclear reactors to help meet the government’s target of generating 1,200 megawatts (MW) of nuclear energy by 2032, a company official said.
“If the government has this plan to have 1,200 megawatts of nuclear (energy) by 2032, micro-modular (reactor) is not enough. We need to look into SMR and maybe conventional nuclear,” Meralco Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Ronnie L. Aperocho said during a briefing on Monday.
Under the Clean Energy Scenario of the Department of Energy’s Philippine Energy Plan for 2030-2050, nuclear energy is projected to have an installed capacity of 1,200 MW by 2032, 2,400 MW by 2035, and 4,800 MW by 2050.
“We think that nuclear power plant is part of that infrastructure for us to really address the power problems in the country,” Mr. Aperocho said.
Meralco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said that the deployment of SMRs and micro-modular reactor (MMRs) might be pushed back from the target.
“It turned out to be more difficult than anticipated…, so the timetable for deployment of SMR or MMR could be moved back as far as 2032, 2035,” he said.
An MMR unit or “nuclear battery” can “safely and reliably” provide up to 45 MW of high-quality heat, delivered into a centralized heat storage unit, according to Meralco.
“One or more MMR nuclear batteries combine their heat in the heat storage unit, from where electric power or superheated steam can be extracted through conventional means to meet a wide range of power requirements, from tens to hundreds of MW,” the power distributor said.
Mr. Aperocho said that the company is seeking to meet “a lot of leading players in the nuclear energy industry” in the United States, Canada, and South Korea to explore partnerships.
Meralco First Vice-President and Head of Networks Froilan J. Savet said that some company officials will travel to Ontario, Canada, to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for sending scholars to study nuclear engineering.
“As part of that trip also, we are going to Illinois to sign an MoU with the University of Illinois because we’re going to send two scholars on nuclear engineering,” he said.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT, Inc.
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