In electricity, IP traces paths before closing avenues

Decisions about the future of private activities in the Mexican electricity sector they practically find themselves in the field of the Judiciary and the international representations of the governments of Mexico, the United States and Canada. But, according to data from the Secretary of Energyto achieve the goals of post-pandemic economic growth, an average annual increase of 6.8% in the supply of electricity is required, for which the agreements, efforts and investments of all participants in the sector, both public and private, will be necessary.

The government has indicated its priorities: the increase in hydroelectric generation, both on a large scale through the remodeling of the existing capacity and on a smaller scale in the so-called mini-hydroelectric; distributed generation and isolated supply, off the grid, by large consumers; energy storage so that projects such as the photovoltaic park of Puerto Peñasco in Sonora multiply, and the study, promotion and application of green hydrogen as a transition fuel along with the gas natural.

Regarding this latest technology, the president of the Mexican Hydrogen Association (AMH2), Israel Hurtado, spoke out for working on a national strategy and official Mexican standards, given the potential that the country has to become an important player at a global level. international conference on green hydrogen.

According to the specialist, the country lacks a national strategy for hydrogen. He also stressed the importance of working on the issue of regulation, but in particular on official Mexican standards focused on technical issues such as the installation of electrolyzers in renewable power plants, for hydrogen storage, transportation, and security.

According to various studies, the country could have up to 64% lower production costs compared to other countries.

According to the Cipro company, another great opportunity for project developers is in the plans to increase the national hydroelectric capacity on a large scale, since the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) intends to expand by approximately 240 megawatts or just over 4% of the country’s large hydroelectric installed capacity (which is 7% of the national capacity).

For this, the industry remains attentive to the results of the CFE calls for the modernization of 14 power plants hydroelectric of the state company in which 1,000 million dollars will be invested. There are also opportunities in mini-hydroelectric capacity, which in the country is less than 10% of the total for this technology, and which consists of installations with installed power of less than 10 megawatts that use the natural force of aquifer flows, without the need to build reservoirs. or affect communities.

On the other hand, the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) submitted to the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement (Conamer) the project of general administrative provisions for distributed generation, with which it presented new rules for facilities with capacities of less than 500 kilowatts.

On this occasion, a new model of considerations in medium voltage is included, the term of collective distributed generation and the adoption of storage systems for this renewable alternative.

Javier Romero Durand, a member of the photovoltaic group of the National Solar Energy Association (ANES), explained that a positive aspect is that it includes certification for installers. “It is done correctly, requesting the competency standards of installers and supervisors within the formats that must be submitted to CFE,” he explained.

“Generation distributed in the last 10 years has multiplied more than 8,000 times and this year growth of at least 20% is expected,” said Sergio Rodríguez, service manager for Latin America at Ginlong Solis, which is a Chinese-Mexican alliance willing to continue investing in the installation of photovoltaic capacity.

The lawyer and academic in the energy sector, Miriam Grunstein, explained that there is a lot to be done to eliminate administrative waste, particularly in the CRE regulations, such as the Agreement that makes it impossible to obtain new permits, since the timeframes for the regulator with those of Pricing and the CFEand there are no investors willing to take risks in the face of such uncertainty.

karol.garcia@eleconomista.mx