OHL Industrial and SENER awarded a contract to build the Empalme I combined cycle power plant in Mexico for 445 million euro

The consortium of OHL Industrial and technology and engineering group SENER signed a contract on April 15th, with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) of Mexico for the turnkey construction of the Empalme I combined cycle power plant in the town of Empalme, Sonora (Mexico), to provide power in the northern Mexico. The contract has a price tag of about $477 million (approximately 445 million euro) and an execution time of 30 months.

The Empalme I combined cycle power plant will use natural gas and have a capacity of 770 MW based on 2 type H turbines produced by Siemens. Once operational in November 2017, the plant will supply electricity to the northern region of Mexico, where, according to CFE estimates, energy demand will grow at a rate of 3.6% annually.

Under the project, OHL Industrial and SENER will perform both basic and detail-engineering, supply of all equipment and materials, spare parts and special tools as well as the construction, testing and commissioning of the power plant. During the construction phase, the consortium estimates that the project could generate about 1,500 jobs within the local community.

After signing the agreement at the CFE headquarters in Mexico DF, representatives of the consortium declared: “We appreciate the confidence that CFE has placed in the consortium to carry out the design, construction and commissioning of this important power plant. In addition, we are very proud that CFE has awarded our proposal the highest rating possible as a result of technical and economic assessment.”

The Executive Vice President of Siemens Power & Gas in Mexico said: “We are proud that OHL Industrial and SENER have chosen the Siemens H technology. With 16 units in commercial operation in projects for CFE, the H Technology is a pioneer in Latin America in combined cycle plants with very high efficiency.”

This new award also reinforces the relationship between OHL Industrial and SENER. Both companies have performed major contracts for power generation in Mexico in consortium, among them two cogeneration plants for the Cydsa group and the TG-8 project in the Madero refinery for Pemex, all turnkey contracts. The operation and maintenance of the Cydsa facilities have already been delivered and are currently in operation.

For OHL Industrial, this contract is the first milestone after the presentation of the OHL Group’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan this past March 2nd. This plan calls for OHL Industrial to reach sales of 1 billion euro in 2020. In addition to the already-mentioned energy projects, the company is developing several contracts in Oil&Gas field in Mexico, including a hydrogen plant, a booster station and a solidifying sulfur plant and performs EPC monitoring services for the Los Ramones 2 North and South Pipeline.

SENER is a global industrial plant engineering and construction firm with a strong presence in Mexico, where it employs over 400 Mexican professionals. Among the turnkey projects developed in the country to date, we would highlight the Agua Prieta II combined cycle power plant, the Frontera and Los Ramones compressor stations for the Northeast Pipeline (GDN), the 95 MW Alpek Cosoleacaque cogeneration plant and catalytic cracking in the Cangrejera petrochemical plant for Pemex. Other activities in the country include the modernization of the Salamanca refinery for Samsung Engineering and the North combined cycle power plant.