Sheinbaum to analyze PPP plan for power lines in Querétaro state

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration will review Querétaro state’s proposal for a PPP to build 140km of high-voltage power lines.

The project would be worth close to 6bn pesos (US$310mn), according to estimates by the state's energy agency.

The power line model being proposed by Querétaro is new and has not been used in Mexico before, Sheinbaum said at her morning press conference on Monday.

State-owned utility CFE has a monopoly on electricity transmission in Mexico. And a constitutional reform making its way through the legislature reinforces this monopoly.

Like her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum has pledged to strengthen the role of CFE in the electricity market.

Sheinbaum visited Querétaro over the weekend to launch construction of the Mexico City-Querétaro rail link.

State governor Mauricio Kuri González discussed the transmission project with Sheinbaum, energy minister Luz Elena González and the head of CFE, Emilía Calleja Alor.

"Because there is a part of private investment, we are going to review the viability and study it," Sheinbaum said in Querétaro. "The idea is that if it is viable, we will immediately give the authorizations so that it can go ahead. It is a new financing model, that is why we have to analyze it."

Querétaro is one of central Mexico's leading recipients of foreign direct investment, especially in fast-growing sectors such as datacenters.

With energy consumption growing, the state government has said that it wants to improve its electricity supply without having to wait for CFE to invest.