San Miguel not keen on Bataan nuclear plant

DIVERSIFYING San Miguel Corp. will not bid for the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant if ever the state-owned facility is revived,

Pangasinan Rep. Mark O. Cojuangco, the son of the conglomerate’s chairman Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr. and author of a House bill which seeks to revive the plant, said such a move on the part of San Miguel would ensure there would be no conflict of interest.

“My father assured me that they won’t join because I was the one who filed the bill,” the younger Cojuangco said at the sidelines of the recent Philippine Business Conference.

San Miguel President Ramon S. Ang confirmed this, saying: “Yes, [San Miguel] will not bid for Bataan [Nuclear Power Plant].”

The conglomerate, formerly focused in the food and beverage industry, has been investing in the power sector.

It has a 27-percent stake in Manila Electric Co.—the country’s largest power distributor. It recently bagged the independent power producer administrator contract for the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Sual plant in Pangasinan and purchased the 620-MW Limay Combined Cycle Power Plant in Bataan.

The congressman said he preferred 100-percent state ownership of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

Rehabilitating the plant to the tune of $1 billion, he claimed, would pay off in the long run as power generated by the plant would cost P2 to P3.50 less per kilowatt-hour than power produced by coal plants.

The plant was built during the Marcos administration, costing the government $2.3 billion. It was mothballed after the 1986 “people power” revolution due to supposed defects.

Interest in its revival has been growing. Korea Electric Power Co. had tied up with the National Power Corp. to study how the plant could be revived. The Philippine Energy Plan 2007-2035, meanwhile, states that the country should look into nuclear power.