Investments from foreign players who are willing to do business in the Philippines will push the country to embrace nuclear energy, a top official of AC Energy said on Wednesday.
“I think the best bet in terms of potential strategy for the Philippines is to get foreign investors because they are the ones, especially the incumbents, who have experience in terms of investing in nuclear,” said AC Energy President Eric Francia during a forum titled “Energy’s Sustainable Future in Renewables and Nuclear.”
“The hurdle they have to address is doing business in the Philippines, the market condition and so forth. But I’d be curious to hear what international investors in nuclear are saying about entering the Philippines.”
The Philippine Energy Plan already projects the inclusion of nuclear power in the country’s energy mix by 2030. The Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee will conduct a study on the country’s adoption of a national position on a Nuclear Energy Program.
Carlo Arcilla, Director of the Philippine Nuclear Institute, said there should be a national position, signed by President Duterte, declaring that the country is ready to adopt nuclear energy. “Without that signature, we will not go anywhere.”
Francia observed that industry stakeholders are hesitant to pursue nuclear energy citing risks involved in operating a nuclear power facility. “The deal breaker, critical issue is risk management. It’s that ‘what if’ scenario. If something goes wrong, it could be catastrophic not only in the community where the nuclear plant is but also to the corporate sponsor. That’s the fear. It’s the risk management factor.
Whereas with coal or gas, if something goes wrong, the worst-case scenario arguably is management or is less severe than nuclear. So that stigma or fear, or risk, is something corporates are concerned about,” said Francia.
For Arcilla, it would be “irresponsible” to not even consider nuclear even if it’s just a possibility. “If we don’t consider nuclear in the equation and we take coal out there’s just no way that you can escape fact that electricity prices will increase because we have to import the replacement for Malampaya gas.”
Nuclear energy prices, he added, could be “about half” of existing electricity rates.
Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has stressed the potential contribution of nuclear energy in efforts to accelerate the attainment of a secure and sustainable energy future for the Philippines.
“It is high time that the feasibility of safely utilizing nuclear energy to meet our energy requirements be considered,” Cusi said. “We might be at par with our more developed regional neighbors like South Korea, which took advantage of developing its own national nuclear energy program despite the economic challenges it was facing at that time.”
In December last year, the DOE-chaired Nuclear Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee (NEP-IAC) submitted to the Office of the President its initial report endorsing the adoption of a National Position for a Nuclear Energy Program.