Xinfra to Acquire Huinalá Power Plant for MX$5.1 billion

Xinfra Fibra E, an investment trust focused on energy and infrastructure, announced it has completed a stock placement of MX$5.1 billion destined to finance the acquisition of the Huinalá combined-cycle energy plant, located in the ProPark Industrial Park in Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon. The Huinalá power plant has a capacity of 142MW with seven Wärtsilä natural gas engines, each 18.7MW, and a 11.5MW steam turbine, with a useful life of more than 40 years.

The power plant holds two permits from CRE: an export permit and a generation permit. For its power generation, the plant has natural gas purchase and sale agreements with both Kinder Morgan and Rainbow Energy Marketing Corporation. Additionally, it has a 15-year natural gas transportation contract with the Mier-Monterrey Gas Pipeline, also owned and operated by Kinder Morgan.

Huinalá's plant processes natural gas into electricity, which is then delivered to EdC. This electricity is exported by Huinalá to Guatemala and imported by EdC under a processing, transformation, and delivery contract active until July 31, 2031. The energy produced by this power plant represents about 9% of all the energy consumed in Guatemala. 

The generation plant is connected to transmission grids in both Mexico and Guatemala, holding the necessary permits to dispatch energy and handle additional energy and capacity sales in both countries. While the majority of its electricity, 120.15MW out of 142 MW, is supplied to Guatemala, 22.5MW of capacity is available in Mexico’s wholesale electricity market according to prices set by the CENACE.

According to an investor presentation by XInfra, Kia and Hyundai could be potential partners for expanding the energy plant as the two automotive companies will need approximately 100MW for their Mexico manufacturing expansion needs.