Sheinbaum Opens US$350 Million CFE Plant, Targets 60 More by 2030

President Claudia Sheinbaum inaugurated the Villa de Reyes combined-cycle power plant in San Luis Potosí, the first new facility completed under her administration’s energy programme. Built by the state-owned Comisión Federal de Electricidad, the gas-fired plant cost roughly US$350 million and can supply about 437 megawatts—enough electricity for an estimated 2.4 million people while cutting carbon-dioxide emissions by more than half compared with older oil-based units. Sheinbaum used the opening to outline an expansion drive that envisions 60 additional combined-cycle stations over the next six years, adding some 26,000 MW to the national grid. The President said the strategy is intended to strengthen CFE’s role after a 2025 constitutional overhaul restored the utility’s public-sector mandate, and forms part of a wider plan that foresees more than US$22 billion of investment across generation, transmission and distribution. Addressing separate reports that Spain’s Iberdrola is seeking to divest Mexican power assets valued at about US$4.7 billion, Sheinbaum told reporters there is “full legal certainty” for private investment and that the company has no reason to leave. She added that any plants operating under so-called self-supply schemes must be brought into compliance with current regulations, but said talks with the utility are ongoing.