Spain's GN Adds Mexican Concessions

Spanish utility Gas Natural (GN) hopes to quadruple its customer base in Mexico in the coming years, saying December 21 it can now count on 8mn there. The energy regulator CRE has granted it two new gas distribution concessions in the southeastern Mexican states of Campeche and Yucatan that together should bring it an additional 513,000 new gas customers.

As GN says its existing concessions in Mexico City, Sonora, Sinaloa, Bajio Norte and Bajio Sur should bring it an eventual market of 7.5mn, the two new concessions take that potential total to more than 8mn customers – with the development of gas distribution networks that it has undertaken to complete in the coming years, with investment front-loaded into the first five years of the new concession periods. However it did not say by when it expects to reach the 8mn mark. It now has 2mn.

GN's general director in Mexico Narcis de Carreras, , pointed out that "Gas Natural wants to highlight and confirm, with these new concessions, its leadership in the country's energy sector. We have 2mn gas customers in 56 cities in Mexico and a network that exceeds 20,000 km. We are ready and committed to grow and invest.  Natural gas is a factor of economic development for the states that have this service, since they grow 50% more than those states that do not yet enjoy natural gas."

GN also operates four combined cycle gas-fired power plants and a wind farm in Mexico, which together add up to an installed capacity of 2.429 GW.

The company already supplies almost 10mn customers overall in Latin America, including Mexico, with over 72,000 km of gas networks – having added 1,470 km to these in the past year alone – and also supplies power to more than 3.7mn customers there.

But it has faced challenges in an important market, Colombia, where the government took back its Electricaribe concession after GN failed to recoup money from its customers and re-invest in that network. 

Gas Natural's Durango CCGT in Mexico (Photo credit: Gas Natural)