29 March 2024
Taking back control: Mexico’s bid for energy sovereignty
Publication date: 22 July 2020
Gas Strategies Group
10 Saint Bride Street
London UK
EC4A 4AD
ISSN: 0964-8496
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In May of this year, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly referred to by his initials AMLO, pushed through a sweeping set of measures ostensibly aimed at ensuring the reliability of Mexico’s national grid at times of low demand due to Covid-19.
The new laws essentially privileged Mexico’s national electricity company, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), by blocking out – privately owned - renewable sources of energy from Mexico’s electricity system. The measures guarantee income for CFE, and indirectly benefits Mexico’s beleaguered national oil company, Pemex by prioritising electricity from the company’s oil and gas-fired thermal power plants, and designating a number of the company’s power plants as “must run,” on the grounds they are needed to balance the grid.