Even in the late stages of his administration, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is sticking to his state-centric energy policy that has rattled many private firms in the sector.

In his penultimate state-of-the-union address to the nation last week, he said the program of “expanding the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) includes the construction of 12 combined cycle plants.” This includes two plants in construction in the Yucatán Peninsula that are set to be inaugurated next year, he said.

Mexico’s state utility CFE is set to bring online 1.5 GW of natural gas-fired power generation capacity on the Yucatán by summer 2024. The combined-cycle plants in Mérida and Valladolid would have capacities of 499 MW and 1,020 MW, respectively, and run...