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CFE launches tender for 25 MW geothermal plant at Los Humeros geothermal field, Mexico

CFE launches tender for 25 MW geothermal plant at Los Humeros geothermal field, Mexico Los Humeros, Mexico (source: Lee Siebert, Smithsonian Institution, commons.wikimedia, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 29 Jun 2020

La Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), the state power utility of Mexico, has launched a tender for the design, construction, equipment and installation of a 25 MW geothermal power plant as part of the Los Humeros III Phase B development.

The state power utility of Mexico, Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) published an international tender to build, starting in 2021, the expansion of the Chignautla geothermal plant, Puebla, in the area bordering Perote, Veracruz . The project is part of the Expansion Plan 2019 of the initial Los Humeros geothermal plant that contemplates a total investment of USD 95.4 million.

The project was published almost at the same time that the cancellation of the contract with the Spanish company  Iberdrola in Tuxpan, Veracruz, for the construction of a Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCC), was announced, the project will continue but now in charge of CFE.

The new project published on the governmental platform of Proyectos México contemplates the construction of the second phase of the plant, which is located in the Los Humeros geothermal field  , in the municipality of Chignautla, which is the eastern region of the state of Puebla and the western Veracruz state, 32 kilometers northwest of the city of Perote.

The tender portal describes the project as the design, construction, equipment and installation of:

“A geothermal electric power plant with a guaranteed net capacity of 25 MW at summer design condition, considering geothermal condensation steam as a driving fluid, consisting of a geothermal condensation steam turbine, a system cooling through a wet type cooling tower, main and auxiliary transformers, and all necessary equipment including its transmission system.”

The plant will be located in Los Humeros geothermal field, in the eastern region of the state of Puebla and in the western of the state of Veracruz, 32 km northwest of the city of Perote, Veracruz.

The project details that it is a work with 100 percent private investment financing   through a three-year international public tender contract that includes the design, construction, equipment and installation, without specifying the estimated investment for the execution of the same.

The work identified as Los Humeros III Phase B Geothermal Power Plant details that in the Productive Infrastructure Investment Projects with Deferred Registration in Public Expenditure (PIDIREGAS), the developer finances the project during construction and at the end of the work, once the Project assets are able to operate, CFE pays deferred as established in the contract.

The call issued through the CFE’s Management of Tenders and Contracts for Financed Investment Projects indicates as relevant dates January 28, 2021 as the limit for the receipt of proposals, while on February 25 of the same year they will be given to know the results of the failure.

It should be noted that the Los Humeros III Geothermal Plant in Phase A has already been operating since November 2017. It had an investment of $ 47 million for its construction and has a total capacity for the generation of 94 megawatts, enough energy to power 60,000 homes with electricity.

Initially announced in 2011, the proposals now have been published on May 21, 2020 with a deadline for proposals of January 28, 2021 and a ruling on February 25, 2021.

Source: e-consulta, Poyectos México