Manila Electric Co. and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) signed an agreement for a $2.7 million grant to conduct a feasibility study on small modular reactors (SMRs) for the Philippines.
Meralco chief operating officer Ronnie Aperocho said that following the signing of the agreement, they can now move forward with the study.
“It’s signed already,” Aperocho said. “There will be a technology scanning, things like that. What’s the best technology today. If SMR technology is the right technology to be adopted in the Philippines.”
He expects a consultant to be engaged by January 2026, with the study expected to take about 12 months to complete, or by January 2027.
The signing of the grant was delayed due to a U.S. government shutdown.
The USTDA grant will help Meralco begin the SMR study as it pursues nuclear power generation to support the government’s clean energy and energy security goals.
Aperocho said Meralco would have to wait for the results of the USTDA study on SMRs, which will also be guided by the International Atomic Energy Agency framework.
“There is a pilot now in Romania. So we have to wait for the outcome. They are on track,” he said. The SMR project in Romania is also funded by USTDA.
Aperocho said they are closely watching developments and expect many technology companies to be interested in the project.
“The problem with SMR is, it’s first of a kind, and based on the PhilATOM bill, the country of origin must show that the SMR is running at least two years without incident before we can adopt,” he said earlier. “But yeah, SMRs are ideal because of the size and of course the technology.”
SMRs have a capacity of between 300 megawatts and 500 megawatts.
Aperocho said Meralco is also preparing for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) plan to start accepting nuclear proposals in 2026.
Meralco launched FISSION in 2023 — a scholarship and training program for Filipino nuclear engineers — and has sent scholars to the United States and China.
It began laying the groundwork for integrating nuclear energy into the country’s energy mix in 2024 through its Nuclear Energy Strategic Transition (NEST) program, which supports the government’s goal to develop nuclear capacity for long-term energy security.
In pursuit of the Philippine Energy Plan 2023-2050, the Philippines aims to have a nuclear capacity of at least 1,200 MW by 2032, doubling it to 2,400 MW by 2035, and reaching 4,800 MW by 2050.
