This Tuesday, at a press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador explained that two large combined cycle plants are being built in Yucatán, and a plant of this type was purchased in Baja California Sur to solve the supply problem in that region. Also, they are changing turbines and modernizing a dozen hydroelectric plants.
These actions are carried out in parallel with the purchase of the thirteen power generation plants that the federal government agreed with the company Iberdrola, which will allow the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to generate 54 percent of the energy in the country.
In this sense, López Obrador highlighted “we calculate that we are going to generate up to 15 percent more for the CFE generation at the end of the six-year term, that is, if with this operation we reach 55, we can reach 70 percent of generation, but as demand is growing because as the country grows and what is most needed is electricity, we calculate that we are going to leave the CFE with at least 65 percent, and this is a bailout, that’s why I spoke of a new nationalization.
In his morning press conference, he pondered that the agreement with Iberdrola “is something very important for the country, for the benefit of the people of Mexico, especially consumers, because in essence, what is guaranteed is that the price will not increase of the light”.
The purchase of the thirteen plants is done to strengthen the CFE and thus be able to offer electricity at fair prices, he insisted. “I promised that the prices of fuels, electricity, gas, gasoline, and diesel would not increase, and I am complying. In more than 4 years there have been no increases and I can prove it, there have even been decreases in the prices of gasoline, gas, electricity, in real terms”.
With this operation, he pointed out, it is guaranteed that in this six-year term these prices will not increase, and the same policy will be maintained going forward. “We are going to conclude and we are going to leave conditions so that the same price policy is maintained in gasoline, diesel, gas and electricity.”
As of yesterday, and “despite all the obstacles”, the CFE reached 39 percent in the generation of electricity, for which more than 60 percent is controlled by private companies, “and I had made the commitment that we had to keep the CFE with the minimum 54 percent, and the agreement was that, to tell individuals, we are not going to expropriate them, they are not going to stop participating, we are just going to look for the public company, which is the that guarantees consumption to all households, and so that the price does not increase we have to strengthen it, 54 is going to stay and you are going to keep 46 (percent) of the market.”
The purchase of the plants, which will be carried out by the Ministry of Finance through a fund, “technically does not enter directly into the debt”, and meant “about 120 billion pesos, about 0.4 percent of GDP, nothing, because we have strong finances”.
However, he argued that the conservatives will not like it since they have a different way of thinking, in which “we do want this public company to be strengthened, and what is a public company, is a people’s company. And I told the CEO of Iberdrola, because they also behaved well, and we talked.”
Also, he considered that having the stewardship of the electricity sector as a key issue for national sovereignty. “Imagine if there is a conflict and they don’t want to sell us gasoline, because the government falls, how long does a government that depends on buying gasoline abroad without fuel supply resist? It could be a month. That is why energy self-sufficiency is important, it is the key”.
Likewise, he endorsed his gratitude to Iberdrola for the agreement that “was a decision that was made and great care was taken so that it did not undo, so that they could not sabotage the operation” by anticipating a possible disagreement from opponents.