Adding nuclear power generation into the Philippines’ energy mix is financially and economically unsound and does not agree even with government data, according to engineering and financial experts at the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC).
The Philippines-based international nongovernment organization is calling for government planners to rethink their decision-making process when it comes to investments in the electricity sector.
The Department of Energy, since 2016 when the Duterte administration assumed office, has been actively pushing for the adoption of nuclear energy to diversify the country’s resources.
“Nuclear is the most inflexible capacity [power-generation technology] that you can have in the grid,” said Alberto Dalusung III, energy transition adviser at the ICSC.
“You don’ want to ramp it down, you don’t want to ramp it up. You want to run it steady,” Dalusung said. “That’s not the kind of capacity that we need, [even] based on the DOE’s own [data].”
Dalusung, an engineer by education, was one of two resource persons at an online press briefing the ICSC held on Monday.
“From a financial perspective, I’m overtly negative on nuclear,” said Sara Jane Ahmed, energy finance analyst at Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which has headquarters in Ohio, United States.
“When we look at the Top 10 major nuclear development projects in the world, most of them are 10-15 years behind schedule, they are double or triple the original investment, the cost to consumers are prohibitively expensive without a lock-in [government] subsidy,” Ahmed said.
“And subsidies are typically 20, 30 or even 40 years, and Epira (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) will simply not allow these capital subsidies to be spent by the government,” she said. “So nuclear in my view is totally uneconomic without a government subsidy. If we look at it from a rational, financial perspective—put aside climate, put aside environment—just the finance and economics, it does not make sense without a government subsidy.” INQ