Reported by Business News Americas, “Mexican state power company CFE has received one bid to install 21MW of new capacity at the Los Humeros geothermal field in Puebla state, corporate geothermal division head Raúl Maya told BNamericas.

Los Humeros currently has 40MW of capacity from eight 5MW units, the last of which came online in mid-2007. The contract entails installing seven new 3MW units alongside seven of the existing 5MW units using residual steam. A Mexican subsidiary of US geothermal firm Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA) submitted the bid, Maya said. CFE will analyze the technical feasibility of the proposal over roughly the next five weeks.

If the proposal meets technical guidelines, CFE will open Ormat’s economic bid to see if it is below the maximum value CFE set for the project. CFE did not include a 3MW unit to be added next to the eighth existing 5MW unit, although it could put it out to tender in the future.

The original schedule, which called for bids in September 2008, indicated the winning bidder must finish construction of the first 3MW unit in May 2010 and complete another unit each month through November.

The tender number is 18164093-008-08.”

Source: Business News Americas