CFE cancels the bidding process for the first thermoelectric plant to be built in this administration.

This plant is part of the new bidding package approved by the Ministry of Finance and the Board of Directors that will have a total cost of 2.4 billion dollars for the installation of 3,415 megawatts in six plants.

GUANAJUATO Mexico (Agencies) – The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) canceled the bidding process for constructing the combined cycle plant in Salamanca, Guanajuato, with a capacity of 836 megawatts and an approximate cost of 600 million dollars. It was announced as the first project of new infrastructure for electricity generation of the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The state-owned company informed the companies registered in the international open tender CFE-0036-CACOA-0012-2019 that “there are no conditions necessary to continue with the development of the international open tender (…) so it has decided to cancel it, without any responsibility for the Commission, ending the contracting procedure.

The above is derived from the crisis and the effects within productivity that the Covid-19 pandemic has generated. Also, to comply with AMLO’s country’s non-debt policy to optimize economic resources.

And under the provisions of paragraph 1.9: “cost of preparing bids in Section 1 of the tender requirements, the cancellation does not imply any responsibility for the CFE, which will not be responsible for the costs associated with the preparation of the bids of the contestants, so there is no obligation to provide compensation or indemnification,” according to the sub-directorate of Project Structuring of the corporate management of Engineering and Infrastructure Projects of the CFE.

According to the technical detail of the CFE for this tender, the plant 347 CC Salamanca would be a thermoelectric plant for generation utilizing gas and recovery for a second cycle employing steam with a net guaranteed capacity of 836.79 megawatts (± 4%) under the condition of Summer design at 100% of its load.

It would then be made up of two gas turbogenerators, two heat recovery steam generators, a steam turbine, and a primary cooling system with an aero-condenser. Main and auxiliary transformers and all the necessary equipment to integrate a combined cycle plant, including its transmission system, would be located in Salamanca’s municipality, in the state of Guanajuato.

Until the last update of the bidding process, the reception of proposals would be until November 20th, and the ruling was foreseen for December 18th, 2020. Although it was not published, the approximate cost of this plant, one of the six projects announced by this administration, would have approximate budget participation of 25% of the $2.4 billion allocated to these works.

This plant is part of the new bidding package approved by the Secretariat of Finance and the Board of Directors that will have a total cost of 2.4 billion dollars for the installation of 3,415 megawatts in six plants.

In addition to this combined cycle plant in Guanajuato, the company’s management announced that another plant of the same technology would be built in San Luis Potosi, of 860 megawatts. The third bid will be for an isolated system of diesel generation in Baja California Sur, with 43 megawatts.

Besides, plans included the analysis to design tenders for a combined cycle in the center of the country, probably in Lerdo, State of Mexico, with a capacity of 642 megawatts and another bid for a combined cycle plant of 500 megawatts in San Luis Rio Colorado, Guanajuato.

The last of these plants would be the expansion of the plant in Yucatan, Merida IV, through a combined cycle of 500 megawatts. That would solve the problems of supply in the entity, provided that there is the availability of natural gas. The state committed that in the next 12 months, the needs are extended to 310 million cubic feet per day in the region.