Even though it is already illegal, I call on these companies to sit down and see how we are going to solve the problem, because I have to apply the law, otherwise I will become an accomplice. There is already a legal framework”
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, President of Mexico
After not having had the approval of its constitutional reform in electrical matters, the federal government will seek a negotiation to cancel the energy self-supply permits that were bequeathed in the 2013 reform because they were still in force since the 1992 regime, as the President of the Republic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This refers to 344 permits in operation, which have an installed capacity of 10,617 megawatts in operation, equivalent to 12% of the national capacity.
When counting the permits to start operations and under construction in this modality, the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) has 410 registered generation permits. The total installed capacity of these permits amounts to 13,614 megawatts, according to the CRE database.
By companies, Grupo Carso has 60 internal combustion permits in operation; Spain’s Iberdrola has six combined cycle and six wind turbines in operation; the steel company Deacero has nine permits for wind generation to start operations; Walmart has six of which three are for hydraulic turbines and three for hydroelectric plants, and the Italian Enel only has three, for two hydroelectric plants and a wind plant in operation.
Meanwhile, according to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), regardless of the registration of permits, there are currently 243 power plants that break the law under this scheme, because they have 77,767 clients as partners, creating what it has pointed out as a supply black market. .
Adrián Olvera Alvarado, director of the subsidiary CFE Generación V, explained in the Chamber of Deputies that self-supply companies constitute an economic impact for CFE of 10,000 million pesos per year because, he accuses, they enjoy a privileged office, they benefit from porterage stamp type for generating without greenhouse gas emissions in the case of renewables, which are 72 of these plants, in addition to the fact that, he says, they do not participate with related services, causing instabilities in the network.
Of the total of 410 permits registered in the CRE both in operations and in construction and to start operations, 54.1% corresponds to fossil sources, that is, a total of 222 permits, of which 71 are for generation through natural gas, with a accumulated capacity of 3,873 megawatts and 151 for diesel generation, with a capacity of just 525 megawatts.
Permits for renewables are 25.8% of the total, since photovoltaic permits are 43, with a capacity of 1,148 megawatts and permits for wind generation amount to 63 but have the largest installed capacity registered for this regime, of 6,424 megawatts.
The remaining 20.1% of the permits correspond to hybrid technologies such as combinations of sugarcane bagasse and fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas, hydroelectric power and biogas.
AMLO calls to negotiate
Yesterday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called for dialogue with shareholders of foreign electricity generating companies to reach an agreement and avoid filing criminal complaints because the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has already ruled that self-supply is illegal.
“Even though it is already illegal, I call on these companies to sit down and see how we are going to solve the problem, because I have to apply the law, otherwise I will become an accomplice. There is already a legal framework.”
He explained that the negotiation will include approximately 20 foreign companies, which serve 70,000 more. “Hopefully, they will begin to review with their lawyers what the Court resolved, so that it is understood that it is already illegal; That self-supply mechanism that they created is a fraud, it is a kind of clandestine, informal, illegal market.
“So, we have to talk. I can’t turn a blind eye; I am not going to do it. But I also don’t want criminal lawsuits to come first. The first thing is a call to sit down, to dialogue”.
He commented that he is about to finish “the analysis of who is in complete illegality; that violate the constitution”, and that the negotiation will begin within the next 15 days.
