Iberdrola Mexico’s new Baja California III Combined Cycle Plant, which was opened by Mexican authorities, will allow the state of Baja California to achieve power autonomy. Until this plant began operation, the state imported electrical power form the United States.
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The plant, with its 314 Megawatt (MW) capacity, was officially opened today by Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) General Director, Jaime Hernández, and the Governor of Baja California state, Francisco Vega de Lamadrid, as well as power company executives.
Iberdrola Mexico made an investment of some $270 Million U.S. for the construction of this plant that began commercial operations a few months ago with a capacity of 314 MW, of which 294 MW are provided to CFE and the remaining 20 MW are sold on the Wholesale Electricity Market.
Located in the city of Ensenada, in the country’s northwest, the plant’s purpose is to cover the state of Baja California’s electrical power demand, which before this plant began operations had to be covered by imported power from the United States. That situation is reversed now, since once the plant begins operations, part of the electricity it generates will be exported to the U.S. state of California.
The President of Iberdrola Mexico’s Administrative Council, Sergio Alcocer, highlighted at the event that the $270 million investment at the Baja California III combined cycle plant is an example of Iberdrola’s long-term commitment to Mexico, where it has an installed capacity of 6,000 MW across 15 combined cycle, cogeneration and renewable energy plants, and it has another 10 projects currently under construction.
At the same time, CFE General Director Jaime Hernández pointed out that this plant, in addition to allowing the state of Baja California to become self-sufficient, will produce by itself enough energy to provide power to more than 40 percent of the state population and will reduce air pollutant emissions by an amount equivalent to the planting of 10 million trees in ten years.
In December 2013, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) granted Iberdrola Mexico a 25-year contract for the construction, development, ownership, operation and maintenance of this electrical power plant, along with the infrastructure needed to connect the plant to the nation’s power system.
This Iberdrola Mexico plant has a generation module with a gas turbine, a steam turbine and a heat recovery system with three levels of pressure.
Iberdrola Mexico has invested more than $5 billion in the country, of which some $3.5 billion have been spent on projects begun following the constitutional energy reform.
Currently, Iberdrola Mexico has a 6,000 MW capacity in operation, and another almost 4,000 MW are under construction at four new combined cycle plants in the northeast (Escobedo) and northwest (Topolobampo II, Topolobampo III and El Carmen) and two cogeneration plants, San Juan del Río and Altamira. We are also constructing four renewable energy facilities, with 325 MW coming from wind power in the states of Puebla and Guanajuato and 275 MW from solar parks in the states of San Luis Potosí and Sonora.
