Mexican Energy Plan To Boost State Power Company, Set Rules For Private Producers

Wedoany.com Report-Nov 7 ,Energy priorities for Mexico's government include boosting state-owned national electricity companyCFE while also setting rules for private companies that produce electricity from renewable sources, senior officials said on Wednesday.

Energy Minister Luz Elena Gonzalez, speaking at a press conference alongside the country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said private companies would be able to add capacity of an additional9.6 gigawatts by2030 from renewable sources.

Mexico's $23.4 billion-investment plan would see CFE adding 13 gigawatts of capacity by building out capacity for renewable sources but also fossil fuels through combined cycle and internal combustion.

As part of the plan, CFE would spend $7.5 billion on transmission infrastructure alone, and it would also spend on substations and transformers.

"We're going to build a robust and, above all, reliable electrical system," said CFE's general director, Emilia Calleja.

Before winning the June election, Sheinbaum had promised that her government would spend more than $13.6 billion on energy transition, including building out capacities for wind and solar, and modernizing five hydroelectric plants.

Sheinbaum's predecessor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had made it harder for private companies to participate in electricity generation.

Intermittency of electricity generation from renewables had made the system less reliable, his government had argued, forcing CFE to fill up storage capacity using fossil fuels.

Data by Prodesen, a government program for the electricity sector, showed electricity generated from renewable energy sources, including hydroelectric plants, at the end of 2023 was more than 38.5 terawatt per hour.

In total, almost 351.7 terawatt per hour were created in 2023, 76% of which was from fossil fuels.