First Gen ‘keeping an eye’ on nuclear power venture

MANILA, Philippines — First Gen Corp. is sharpening its low-carbon strategy, with nuclear power emerging as an increasingly attractive opportunity amid growing national momentum for the technology.

First Gen vice president Jay Joel Soriano said the Lopez Group’s power arm is “keeping an eye” on a potential move into nuclear energy as it steps up investments in cleaner power sources.

“It’s almost unavoidable that we have to consider nuclear within our energy mix,” Soriano said during a forum organized by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies yesterday.

The Philippines is turning its attention toward small modular reactors (SMRs), which are capable of generating up to 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

While the promise is significant, SMRs are still in their early stages globally. Philippine regulations require that any country of origin first show at least two years of safe, incident-free operation before the technology can be adopted locally.

That same uncertainty is also giving pause to First Gen, which has been exploring SMRs but remains cautious as it weighs the technology’s readiness.

“If we are going to embark on that route, we want some level of certainty that there is a clear path toward commercialization,” Soriano said.

On the sidelines of the forum, he told reporters that First Gen is also in search of an organization or company capable of making nuclear power commercially viable in the Philippines.

Soriano said they already held talks with American entities on nuclear technology but stressed that discussions remain firmly in the exploratory stage, with no firm commitments yet on the table.

Under the existing roadmap, the Philippines aims to deliver at least 1,200 MW of commercially operational nuclear capacity by 2032.

Based on the Department of Energy’s proposed nuclear tender, however, capacity delivery is scheduled to begin only in 2038, with staggered deployment continuing in phases over a 10-year period.

Under its draft circular, the agency plans to launch the competitive bidding process in June 2027, with the winning bidder expected to secure a ready market for the project and potential access to state funding support.