Mexico City.— The 13 power plants that the Mexico Infrastructure Partners (MPI) fund bought from Iberdrola will result in a high cost because they come from old plants, whose useful life is close to expiring in the following years.
The payment of 6 billion dollars is a high price considering that two thirds of the plants have between 10 and 25 years of operation, while the rest were built between 2017 and 2019, according to experts.
Carlos Flores, a specialist in energy issues, said that it would be more convenient to invest the 6 billion dollars in the construction of new power plants.
“From an economic perspective, the transaction does not make so much sense for the Government of Mexico, to pay the 6 billion dollars, because building those new assets would cost around 8 billion dollars, but here they bought older assets, among 10 and 18 years of operation, except for some cases, so it was paid dearly”, he pointed out.
Reforma published that Iberdrola announced the sale of 70 percent of its generation capacity in Mexico to the MPI fund, in which the Government has a majority stake, an operation that AMLO described as the new “nationalization” of the electricity industry.
Rosanety Barrios, an expert in the energy sector, explained that the purchase of these plants represents a “luxury” considering that the energy that is generated is already purchased by the CFE at lower prices and without the cost that the operation of the plants represents.
“Those electrons were already from CFE because they were PIEs (Independent Power Producers), but the message is that they bought the plants and sovereignty is guaranteed by having most of the generation with CFE. It is a luxury to have the plant, because we already had them and we are paying for them month by month, and they are very cheap,” he said.
“And if the Mexican government intended to go to the market and raise money for electricity generation, it would be better (to buy) new electrons, because they are needed,” he said. In his speech, the president pointed out that with the CFE operation it will go from having 39 percent of the market to 55 percent.
However, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Imco) explained that the sale of the plants was made to a private trust with a majority participation of public entities, so the ownership of the plants will not belong to the CFE nor will its participation increase. market.
“Despite having public financing, legally the ownership of the plants and the management of the trust will be private, outside the federal government and the CFE, that is, the CFE is not increasing its market share in electricity generation,” he says. an article from the Institute. Now it will have to pay for the plants and the cost of maintaining them in operation, Barrios explained.
