CFE awards power plant contract to Spanish firms

Mexico's national power company CFE on Thursday said it awarded a US$396 million power plant contract to a consortium including two Spanish firms, Elecnor and Duro Felguera.

The concession, for a combined-cycle plant that uses natural gas to produce electricity, is located in Sonora, in the northwest near the U.S. border. The plant is meant to feed the region's growing demand for power, CFE said in a statement.

Over the past several years, CFE has been moving away from fuel oil to cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas, mostly via new pipeline infrastructure that brings booming supplies of gas from the United States to Mexico.

CFE chose the consortium, which also includes Elecnor's Mexico unit, from eight proposals.