The threshold that now defines a large energy user in Mexico
CONUEE, the Comisión Nacional para el Uso Eficiente de la Energía, published administrative provisions in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on 15 November 2018 setting out when a user counts as a Usuario de Patrón de Alto Consumo, a user with a high-consumption pattern. A site qualifies if its electricity consumption in the preceding calendar year exceeded 45 GWh, or if its fuel consumption exceeded 100,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent, transport fuels excluded. Users above either line report their consumption and their energy-saving measures to CONUEE each year.
For a plant director or a CFO with operations in Mexico, that figure works as a sorting device. A single site drawing 45 GWh a year runs at roughly 5 MW of average load. Most individual manufacturing plants sit below it. Heavy process industry, large cold-chain operations and aggregated multi-site portfolios sit above it, and above it energy stops being a cost line reviewed once a year and becomes a reportable position with a federal agency attached.
That obligation is the newest layer on a structure Mexico has been building since 1990. The commercial point for an industrial or commercial buyer is not the reporting. It is that the same structure carries the labeling, the financing and the technical programs that decide what an efficiency retrofit costs and who pays for it.
Who actually governs energy efficiency here
The agency is CONUEE. It was created by the Ley para el Aprovechamiento Sustentable de la Energía, published in the DOF on 28 November 2008, as a decentralized administrative body of SENER with technical and operational autonomy. Article 10 of that law makes it the technical authority on sustainable energy use. CONUEE issues efficiency methodologies, runs the program for high-consumption users, and reports on the national efficiency target.
Two distinctions matter commercially. CONUEE is not the electricity regulator. That is the Comisión Reguladora de Energía (CRE), which approves the regulated tariffs an industrial site is billed under. And CFE is not a regulator at all. It is the incumbent utility and a market participant. Vendors that present a retrofit as "approved by CFE" are describing a product certification or a financing program, not a regulatory approval, and the two carry very different weight in a capital request.
How the framework was assembled
FIDE, the Fideicomiso para el Ahorro de Energía Eléctrica, was created on 14 August 1990 at the initiative of CFE. Its Sello FIDE certifies products that deliver electricity savings, and the mark now covers motors, refrigeration, solar modules, inverters, construction materials and LED and fluorescent lighting. FIDE also runs the financing programs that most Mexican businesses actually meet in practice.
The 2008 law gave the field a statutory home. It created CONUEE and it created PRONASE, the Programa Nacional para el Aprovechamiento Sustentable de la Energía, as the instrument through which the federal executive sets efficiency strategies, objectives and targets across sectors. The first PRONASE was published in the DOF on 27 November 2009 and ran to 2012. The second, PRONASE 2014-2018, was published on 28 April 2014, and SENER published a revision and update of it on 19 January 2017.
The Ley de Transición Energética, published in the DOF on 24 December 2015, is where a corporate reader should look for the direction of travel. Its Article 11 requires PRONASE to establish an indicative Meta de Eficiencia Energética, and Article 12 directs SENER and CONUEE to set a roadmap for meeting it. The target is set in the program rather than in the statute, which is why the number moves between PRONASE editions and why an efficiency case built on a national percentage tends not to survive contact with a finance committee.
Why the CFE bill decides whether a retrofit pays
An industrial or large commercial site in Mexico is billed under a CRE-approved tariff class, and the class determines which savings are worth chasing. Sites taking medium-tension supply, roughly 1 kV to 35 kV, with demand of 100 kW or more sit on GDMTH, the time-of-use tariff with base, intermedio and punta periods. Below 100 kW on the same voltage band the class is GDMTO, a flat rate. Larger loads taken at subtransmission voltage fall under DIST, and loads taken directly at transmission voltage fall under DIT, the lowest-cost industrial class.
The distinction that gets lost in efficiency proposals is between consumption and demand. The energy charge bills kWh consumed. The demand charge bills kW at the peak the meter records in the billing period, and on GDMTH the time period in which that peak lands changes what it costs. A lighting retrofit that removes a steady load cuts kWh across every hour and trims recorded demand modestly. A compressed-air or chiller sequencing change may cut very little annual kWh while removing a coincident peak, and that shows up almost entirely on the demand line. Two projects with the same kWh saving can produce materially different bills. Ask any supplier which line of the bill their number comes from before you compare their proposal with another.
Savings percentages quoted by efficiency vendors are measured against current CFE supply and vary with tariff class, region, load factor and consumption profile. Treat any range as illustrative until 12 months of billing and interval data have been reviewed for the specific site.
Where the financing sits
FIDE's Eco-Crédito Empresarial finances the replacement of inefficient equipment with certified high-efficiency alternatives, including LED lighting, electric motors, air conditioning, refrigerators and electrical substations, with repayment collected through the CFE electricity bill. Structures of this kind require no upfront capital, subject to credit review and contract term, and eligibility conditions apply, including an active commercial CFE account in good standing. Confirm the current terms with FIDE before building them into a business case.
On the public side, FOTEASE, the Fondo para la Transición Energética y el Aprovechamiento Sustentable de la Energía, was established by the Ley para el Aprovechamiento de Energías Renovables y el Financiamiento de la Transición Energética, published in the DOF on 28 November 2008. It is a federal trust operating under SENER that finances energy transition and sustainable energy use projects. It is a policy instrument rather than a retail product, and a private industrial site is far more likely to reach it through a program partner than directly.
The numbers behind a capital request
- Whether the site, or the aggregate of sites under one corporate structure, crosses 45 GWh of annual electricity or 100,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent in fuel, and who inside the organization owns the CONUEE filing if it does.
- The exact tariff class on the current CFE bill, and for GDMTH sites, how much of the last 12 months' cost was the demand charge rather than the energy charge.
- Whether the peak that sets the demand charge is driven by process load, by HVAC, or by a startup sequence that could be staggered at no capital cost.
- Whether the equipment specified carries the Sello FIDE, since the mark is a precondition for several financing routes.
- Twelve months of billing and, where the meter supports it, interval data, before any savings range is treated as a forecast rather than an illustration.
Related reading on this site covers the programs and financing routes open to Mexican businesses and the operating practices that reduce load at a facility.
Request an energy efficiency review for your Mexican site
Mexico Energy Partners reviews a facility's tariff class, demand profile and consumption history to identify which efficiency measures move the energy charge, which move the demand charge, and which qualify for program financing. An initial review needs 12 months of CFE billing, the tariff class, a load list and, where available, interval meter data. We do not guarantee a savings level, an eligibility outcome or financing approval before that review is complete.
See how our energy efficiency assessments work or request an energy cost review.