Mexico's Comisi�n Reguladora de Energia (CRE) has awarded a 27-year, independent power producer permit to Electricidad Aguila de Altamira (EAA), a joint venture of Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. and Electricit�e France (EdF). The $254 million project, scheduled for completion in 2002, will produce about 3,632 Gw-hr and consume 22.7 bcf/year of natural gas, CRE reported.
Mitsubishi won CRE's bidding process to build, own, and operate a generating station at Altamira in Mexico's Tamaulipas state. Once the project was assigned to Mitsubishi, the company sold 51% of EAA's shares to EdF. Among other projects, Mitsubishi is investing $480 million in 450-Mw and 536-Mw combined-cycle generating stations in Chihuaha and Tuxpan, respectively.
France's EdF holds generation permits for the 569-Mw Rio Bravo and the 248-Mw Saltillo independent generating stations, in which it is investing about $480 million.
Since 1997, CRE has awarded nine IPP permits with a total generating capacity of 4,093 Mw; the projects are valued at about $2 billion.