Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGEN), the generation arm of the Philippines’ largest private electricity distributor, has selected US engineering firm Sargent & Lundy — working alongside local partner AMH Philippines — to carry out a feasibility study on the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) in the country. The study is part of a $2.8 million technical assistance grant from the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), officially announced in February 2026.
The scope of work is broad. Sargent & Lundy will lead a vendor-neutral technology assessment focused on American designs and aligned with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) standards. The analysis will cover site selection, integration into the national power grid, financial and commercial planning, decision-making frameworks, and a series of workshops aimed at building capacity among industry stakeholders. The study will also produce a shortlist of candidate technologies and an implementation roadmap incorporating international best practices for project structuring and financing. Completion is set for the fourth quarter of 2027.
Within the One Meralco group, a dedicated SMR Working Group has been established to coordinate efforts with Sargent & Lundy and AMH. The study will also engage the Philippine Department of Energy and the Philippine Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (PhilATOM), with the goal of building technical and regulatory capacity alongside the feasibility analysis. This is not merely about assessing whether SMRs can work — it is about laying the regulatory and institutional groundwork to make that a reality.
The initiative is part of Meralco’s NEST (Nuclear Energy Strategic Transition) program, which aims to integrate nuclear power into the Philippine energy mix as a low-carbon solution to the country’s growing electricity demand. The USTDA, an independent US federal agency, funded the initiative specifically to open export opportunities for American SMR technologies in emerging markets such as the Philippines. The US-Philippines relationship on civil nuclear energy has grown steadily, with the grant signing taking place at the US-Philippine Civil Nuclear Energy Partnership event in Makati City, attended by Energy Secretary Sharon Garin and Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinan.
Should the study yield positive results, the Philippines could become one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to take concrete steps toward building a modular reactor. The selection of Sargent & Lundy — a firm with decades of nuclear sector experience — signals that MGEN is not exploring a theoretical option: it is laying the groundwork for a real investment decision, with data, sites, and candidate technologies expected to be on the table by end of 2027.
