Renewable energy on hold (Global Finance Magazine)
Global Finance Magazine examined the stall in Mexican renewable investment in its issue of 5 October 2022. Kijana Mack of Mexico Energy Partners was quoted.
“The energy sector in Mexico must find the right balance regarding regulatory policy, with the need to achieve the renewable energy targets put forth by the government,” Kijana Mack, Executive Director at Mexico Energy Partners, says.
Read the full article at Global Finance Magazine
What this meant for industrial buyers in Mexico
The target in that quote is a clean energy target, not a renewable one. LTE Transitorio Tercero sets a minimum 35% clean energy share of electricity generation by 2024, and energía limpia under LIE Article 3 covers nuclear and efficient cogeneration alongside wind, solar, hydro and geothermal. A corporate policy written against renewables measures something different from the national target.
Three facts framed the decision for a plant with Mexican operations in October 2022. The LIE reform published in the DOF on 9 March 2021 changed the dispatch order to favor CFE's own generation, extended Certificado de Energía Limpia eligibility regardless of commercial operation date, and directed CRE in transitional provisions to revoke autoabasto permits obtained through acts constituting fraud against the law. On 7 April 2022 the Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación dismissed acción de inconstitucionalidad 64/2021 because no challenged provision reached the eight votes required for a general declaration of unconstitutionality, so the reform stayed in the legal order without a general ruling, and lower courts remained free to decide individual amparos. On 17 April 2022 the Cámara de Diputados rejected the constitutional electricity reform, with 275 votes in favor, short of the two-thirds required.
The operating position is a reform that is law and whose application is largely blocked by individual amparo suspensions. Neither extreme is a safe planning assumption. For a facility supplied through a legacy autoabasto structure, the exposure is specific: whether the supplier's permit falls within the review, whether the supplier holds an amparo, and what the contract says if the permit is revoked or wheeling terms change. For a facility weighing a move to suministro calificado, the question is whether the counterparty's project can be dispatched and permitted on schedule. Our regulatory policy analysis and questions about qualified supply cover both routes.
Test your supply structure against the current legal position
Mexico Energy Partners reviews the permit basis, counterparty status and contract terms behind a facility's power supply, and identifies where a regulatory change would land. The review needs the supply contract or permit and 12 months of billing. It produces a risk assessment, not a legal opinion.