Perfect Mix for Environment of Opportunity

Q: How is Industrias Energéticas managing PEMEX’s restructuring?
A: Industrias Energéticas is undergoing a profound organizational transformation. As a business, Industrias Energéticas went from being categorized as a micro company to being a small company. We now have a building fully dedicated to business development, led by a highly trained and motivated team that is creating a company prepared for the challenges brought by Mexico’s Energy Reform. Since our business focuses on integral energy solutions, we consider our human capital as our main asset. We offer constant training and social security to boost our human talent.
Our main market used to be commercializing Capstone Turbine Corporation’s microturbines for safety and control systems at PEMEX’s offshore platforms. When activity at PEMEX started to decline a few years ago we had to expand our client portfolio. The Energy Reform is completely transforming the oil and gas industry and we decided to take advantage and expand our service offering and client reach. Thanks to private capital investment we are now working with 18 potential clients in natural gas for compressors, chillers, regulating systems, instrumentation and engineering.
Q: What specific changes has Industrias Energéticas made to expand its service offering?
A: To expand our market we have gone from commercializing exclusively 1MW microturbines from Capstone Turbine to using turbines that range from 2 to 30MW through a partnership being negotiated with Kawasaki. The turbines we previously worked with ran on fuel oil only but the new ones can run on natural gas, which shows our commitment to the use of cleaner technologies and the great potential we see in that respect. We have plans to equip our turbines with cleaner technologies, such as solar, wind and even maritime, as well as combining them with the implementation of smart grids. We are located in the south of Mexico, in Merida, Yucatan, so we want to focus our attention on the southeastern region where there are fewer competitors and a more specialized market.
In the long-term we want to expand and help offer the country energy security that will facilitate its growth by ensuring companies can bring their operations into our territory. This will also create more jobs and infrastructure.
The Energy Reform allows state-owned companies such as PEMEX and CFE to open their spaces and allow direct negotiations with private clients. Industrias Energéticas is taking advantage of this by offering two main working schemes. The first is managing electric requirements directly with final clients and recommending the use of specific types of turbines according to their requirements. The second scheme is associating with CFE to propose an electric farm that distributes energy by using CFE's installations, also known as a porteo scheme.
Q: How is Industrias Energéticas preparing for the future?
A: We believe that the current panorama involving a new administration in the US, a decrease in the price of oil and gas resources, the Energy Reform and a restructuring of the main energy companies in Mexico create a perfect mixture for an environment filled with opportunities. There are also cultural challenges because people are not used to change and a new company selling electricity without CFE’s logo can create doubts and uncertainty among potential clients. To confront these challenges Industrias Energéticas is incorporating the best human talent, technology and strategic alliances.
Regarding financing, we are working on implementing schemes that do not involve the company diluting its ownership. Fortunately, we have received offers from plenty of investors interested in our projects because they consider our business model interesting and with a bright future. We are participating in activities that ensure widespread knowledge regarding sustainability and energy security, which in the long run will be positive as clients develop a more global and sustainable vision.