MHI has been awarded a full-turnkey contract for the construction of the Tuxpan No.5 power plant. The contract is from a company which was established in Mexico through a joint investment by Mitsubishi Corporation and Kyushu Electric Power Company.
The Tuxpan facility, a gas-powered combined cycle power plant located in the Tuxpan region, roughly 250 km northeast of Mexico City, is an important provider of electricity to the metropolis, Mexico City, which has the highest rate of electricity consumption in the country. Power plants No. 1 to No. 4 are already in operation, and No. 2, 3 and 4 were built by MHI.
The No. 5 power plant, which will be a combined cycle power plant with an output of 495 MW, is scheduled to begin operations as of September 2006. It will be comprised of two F-type gas turbines (M501F), two waste-heat recovery boilers, and one steam turbine.
The gas turbines will be produced at the company's Takasago Machinery Works and the steam turbine at the Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works, while the boilers will be procured locally.
The Mexican company that obtained the contract, Electricidad Sol de Tuxpan, is comprised of a 70% investment from Mitsubishi Corporation and a 30% from Kyushu Electric Power Company. All power produced by the plant is sold by this company to the Comision Federal de Electricidad, Mexico's government agency in charge of power.
This type of plant features greater production efficiency than coal or petroleum-fired thermal power plants, and the exhaust it produces is considered clean.
More specifically, the gas and steam turbines produce electricity simultaneously, a process that enables more than 50 % of the calorific value of the natural gas fuel to be converted to power energy. This rate is roughly 10 % higher than for ordinary coal-fired thermal power plants, which translates into lower fuel consumption, thereby contributing to reduced carbon dioxide levels. Further, since the fuel utilized is natural gas, lower levels of the exhaust gases nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide are released in comparison to the process of burning coal.
MHI have provided more than 50 % of the country's power plants until now. These achievements having been extremely well received by related parties in the country, MHI will actively negotiate a diverse range of business deals in our power business, where Mexico is one of our largest markets.