The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) awarded a consortium led by the Austrian Andritz Hydro the modernization of nine of the 14 hydroelectric plants that it will rehabilitate throughout this administration, after an open tender in which only two contenders participated, for a contract for 892.9 million dollars.
With these works, whose formalization and start-up of works is scheduled for next November 30, 246 megawatts will be added to the national hydroelectric capacity, which will reach 12,371 megawatts, which will only increase by 2%, and will remain below the 16% of national capacity.
The plants whose modernization was awarded are: El Caracol, in Apaxtla, Guerrero; Humaya, in Badiraguato, Sinaloa; Mazatepec, in Tlatlautiquepec, Puebla; Infernillo, in Coahuayutla, Michoacán; La Villita, between Lázaro Cárdenas and Unión de Isidoro Montes de Oca, between Michoacán and Guerrero; Zimapán, between the municipalities of Tasquillo, Tecozautla and Zimapán, in Hidalgo, and Cadereyta de Montes in Querétaro; in addition to Peñitas, in Ostuacán, Malpaso, Mezcalapa and Angostura, in La Concordia, all in Chapas.
On July 15, the CFE presented a Comprehensive Plan for the Modernization of Hydroelectric Power Plants, for which it would have an investment of 1,000 million dollars, although only for these nine plants it had already stipulated an investment of up to 902 million dollars, for What even with the savings of almost 9 million dollars, the state company has only 107 million dollars to distribute among the five plants that have not yet been awarded. Thus, the plan includes the modernization of 14 plants to increase annual generation by 1,860 gigawatts per hour.
According to the ruling, the winner was the consortium between Andritz, Generadores Mexicanos, Hydroproject de México and Sistemas de Energía Internacional.
The consortium leader, Andritz, is a firm of Austrian origin whose head office has been located in the City of Graz since 1852. At the end of last year, the firm reported a total of 27,200 employees worldwide, as it has a presence in 15 countries, mainly in Europe, although for decades it has operated in locations with high use of hydroelectric energy such as China and Canada, in addition to its presence in India and the United States.
In Latin America, it has a presence mainly in Chile and Mexico, where it has been a CFE supplier for 30 years, with headquarters in Morelia, Michoacán.
Only one more company attended the contest that began on July 30, which was GE Energías Renovaveis, which was disqualified for accumulating 26 causes of rejection due to non-compliance with technical requirements.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx