Construction Begins on La Yesca Hydroelectric Plant in Mexico

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On January 23, 2008, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced the startup of construction on the 750-megawatt (MW) La Yesca hydroelectric project on the Santiago River in Mexico's Jalisco and Nayarit states. Construction is expected to be finished in four years and will generate 10,000 jobs.

La Yesca, which will be the second tallest dam in the world at 220 meters after China's Shibuya and includes a reservoir of 12 million cubic meters. During La Yesca's second tender, the project called for the construction of civil work, electro-mechanical work, associated work, engineering, equipment and materials supply, installation, testing, technical support and associated services. Seventeen companies acquired bidding rules: ICA submitted the lowest bid; Promotora de Desarrollo de America Latina (IDEAL) owned by Carlos Slim made a bid of $808 million; and the consortium composed of the Italian company Impregilo, Argentina's Techint, Prourbe del Bajio and Proyecto La Yesca submitted a bid worth $856 million, exceeding the $833 million minimum. Mexican state-owned power company Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), a company that provides services of generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power services to nearly 80 million citizens, awarded the construction of the La Yesca hydroelectric project to a consortium composed of the Mexican engineering firm Empresas ICA S.A. de C.V. (NYSE:ICA), Promotora e Inversora (PISA), Peninsular Compania Constructora and Constructora de Proyectos Hidroelectricos, all located in Distrito Federal, Mexico. For more details, view related September 14, 2007, article - CFE Awards La Yesca Hydroelectric Project to ICA.

On October 2007, BBVA Bancomer, Santander and NordLB signed for the $910 million loan with WestLB Capital Markets Latin America, a unit of Germany's WestLB, to finance the construction of the project. This loan has a due date in four years and nine months, and each bank is authorized to finance up to one-fifth of the total amount. After construction of La Yesca is finished, the plant's two 375-MW turbines will generate 1.4 terawatt-hours per year, which is almost equivalent to 15% of Jalisco state's consumption.

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