Long-stalled Central Mexico power plant will begin operations in December: Lopez Obrador

Mexico City — A 642-MW power plant in central Mexico, halted for years by local communities, will begin operations by December after all legal hurdles have been sorted, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Sept. 10.

The Morelos Integral Project, which consists of a combined-cycle plant, a natural gas pipeline and an aqueduct, will provide electricity to the central area of the country, reducing congestion in transmission lines, said Manuel Bartlett, head of the state utility CFE, during a press conference.

The Morelos Integral Project, or PIM, conceived in 2011, has suffered opposition from local communities from the states of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala. The protesters from Puebla and Tlaxcala have complained about the construction of the pipeline. Those in the state of Morelos have been concerned with the impact of the plant on the quality of the water. Morelos, which borders Mexico City to the south, has a big agricultural community.

The combined-cycle plant, build by Spain's Abengoa, is ready to operate, as is the 99.4-mile gas pipeline, which is operated by Elecnor and Enagas, also from Spain. The only missing work is the aqueduct, CFE said in its latest annual report.

"The federal government has been working on the problem from the legal, social and ecological perspectives," Lopez Obrador said during the presser, adding that Huexca is one of the many "troubled" infrastructure project his administration inherited.

Olga Sanchez Cordero, secretary of state, said that after consultations started in 2019 all legal hurdles have been solved and the project has green light to continue.

"Legaly, the works on the aqueduct have no obstacles and can resume," Sanchez Cordero said.

To address the concerns of local farmers, the government asked the UNESCO to participate in the consultations, Blanca Jimenez, head of the National Water Commission said during her participation in the conference.

"UNESCO formed a team who conducted forensic hydrology studies and made recommendations, which have been followed by CFE," Jimenez said.

A CFE spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.