Preliminary Mexican power auctions show average of $20.57/MWh
The preliminary results of Mexico's third long-term power auction saw an average price of $20.57 per MWh, including clean energy certificates, more than 38% lower than the last auction a little over a year ago. Solar photovoltaic took up more than 55% of power supply contracts, compared to 44.65% of wind, while the total capacity for the preliminary projects was 2,562 MW. This round also saw external buyers participate in tenders for the first time, as Iberdrola and Menkent went up against the state-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad. The final results will be revealed on 22 November.
Mexico on Wednesday evening announced preliminary results of its third long-term power auction, which showed an average price of clean electricity plus clean energy certificates (CEL) of USD 20.57 (EUR 17.46) per MWh+CEL, one of the lowest globally and 38.54% down from the previous auction about a year ago.

The auction, which allows power generators to win contracts for clean electricity supply and firm capacity, saw the submission of 46 economic bids, out of which 16 were preliminary selected.

About USD 2.37 billion is expected to be invested in the next three years in 15 new power plants as a result of the tender. According to the announcement by the Secretariat of Energy (SENER) and the National Center for Energy Control (CENACE), the projects preliminary selected have a combined capacity of 2,562 MW.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) was the leading technology, securing 55.35% of the power supply contracts, while wind won 44.65%. Solar and wind also secured 1.69% and 13.95%, respectively of the firm capacity component of the competition, where the dominant technology was gas.

Below is a summary of the results:

Source Power in MWh CEL Firm capacity in MW Solar PV 3,040,029 3,471,160 10 Wind 2,452,547 2,481,415 83 Gas 0 0 500 Total 5,492,575 5,952,575 593

The figures represent 90.2% of the power, 97.8% of the CELs and 41.9% of the firm capacity sought. As in the previous two tenders, the state-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) will buy the three products. A new thing in this tender was the opportunity for buyers other than CFE to participate. According the the announcement, Iberdrola Clientes and Menkent (CEMEX) took part as buyers in addition to CFE.

The list of provisional winners includes names such as Enel, Canadian Solar, Neoen and X-Elio.

Source: CENACE

The authorities said the clean power that is to be contracted in the auction is equivalent to 1.78% of Mexico's annual generation and is an important step towards achieving the goal of generating 35% of the country's electricity from clean energy sources by 2024. The final results will be announced on November 22.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.849)

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