The Energy Transition Solution: Cogeneration

Q: How did the company adapt its operations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic?

A: Energy production is an essential industry so our operations never ceased. Our plants operated throughout the pandemic, adjusting to the demands of our clients. Today, consumptions levels have returned to normal. On the business side of things, however, some projects had to be postponed.

Overall, this time has allowed us to think about other business opportunities and new geographic prospects to initiate the development of new projects.

Q: How does IGSA view its own internal decarbonization efforts in both its operations and processes?

A: For starters, both of our cogeneration plants have 80 percent efficiency rates, which means that we produce carbon emissions well under CFE’s energy network standards. At our Lerma plant installations, we have also assembled solar panels to further reduce our carbon footprint and cut production costs. Overall, this has allowed us to generate energy that is substantially more efficient and cleaner for the environment in comparison to other market producers.

Q: How does the company’s paquetizado (packaged) solution evolve the benefits of cogeneration?

A: The cornerstone of all our operations is efficiency, which can look entirely different from company to company and even from within if you consider the scale of a facility. Our functional packages look to deliver integrated energy solutions to ultimately make our client’s production easy and efficient. For this reason, Siemens Energy has chosen us to work on 5 to 15MW turbine facilities in Mexico and throughout Latin America. We are working on the development of three more packages and see plentiful opportunities in this area. We are looking forward to expanding this venture in both Mexico and Latin America.

Q:  How do the company’s Igsapac and Tlalco facilities showcase the benefits of the technology?

A: The cogeneration facilities in these locations were constructed between 2013 and 2014 when we were still pioneers in this field. We handled the development from start to finish, adding new technologies and operations. We were very happy with the results.

Q: How could IGSA grow further in the renewable development of biomass, biogas and biofuel within Mexico?

A: Given the various applications, biomass has niches into which IGSA is interested in expanding. For example, biomass technology applications make the most sense in isolated areas where access to natural gas is lacking or nonexistent, such as islands or remote locations. This is an active topic for us. In fact, we are already considering project sights in Mexico and throughout Latin America.

Q: How does IGSA plan to expand its international presence in Latin America?

A: The company already has teams distributed throughout Latin America that have been slowly but surely seeding the company’s reputation and legitimacy through commercialization services. Now that we completed this initial phase, we are looking to expand our commercialization services but with turbine package systems to address specific client needs and project development services encompassing engineering and construction oversight for companies that lack know-how.

Q: What opportunities do you see in maintenance of brownfield projects?

The main opportunity for cogeneration in brownfield projects is the reoptimization of units with obsolete technologies. Often, replacing such technologies is normally the first step needed to make unit processes more efficient.

Aside from this, we also offer direct operation and maintenance services, which help refine the process overall as reflected in analysis reports that are shared with the client on demand.

Q: What are IGSA’s principal objectives for the next 12 months?

First and foremost, our main objective is to consolidate our sales in Mexico and Latin America. In operations, we want to continue serving our present and future cogeneration clients. Considering that not many companies had originally contemplated cogeneration solutions in remote areas away from natural gas access and now do, they are turning to purveyors like us to optimize their local generation processes. Furthermore, we are helping companies that want to implement renewable technologies but worry about intermittency. These two niches offer the company a direct avenue to accomplish its goals. Moreover, we want to continue diversifying our own cogeneration portfolio with development projects, while finding further investment opportunities in Mexico and abroad.

IGSA is a Mexican leader in the production of power plants with over 45 years of experience. The company is present in 12 countries with a network of 50 global distributors, top-tier business partners and a team of 900 professionals.