The document summarizes Mexico's regulatory framework and policies for renewable energy. It outlines that Mexico's state-owned utility CFE has a legal monopoly on electricity distribution but allows private sector participation in generation. It then details the regulatory powers and instruments of Mexico's Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) to promote renewable energy through schemes like energy banking, transmission wheeling rates, net metering, and open seasons to coordinate transmission infrastructure development. The document provides examples of CRE regulations and programs to incentivize renewable energy self-supply and integration into the grid.
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2012 Reenergize the Americas 4A: Alejando Peraza Garcia
1. Mexico’s initiatives with respect to
Renewable Energies
Alejandro Peraza-García
Director General of Electricity and Renewable Energy
Energy Regulatory Commission
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2. Mexico’s Industrial Organization
in the Electricity Sector
• Public service is a legal monopoly granted to CFE (State owned utility).
• Private sector is allowed to participate in what is considered not to be
public service:
– Self-supply;
– Cogeneration;
– Small production;
– IPP;
– Exports, and
– Imports.
• Since 1994, CRE regulates the interaction between CFE and the
private agents.
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3. What does CRE regulate?
• Generation, exports and imports by the private sector (market entry
and exit):
– Permits.
• Capacity and electricity purchased by CFE:
– Price determination mechanisms. No subsidies involved
• Transmission and interconnection services offered by CFE:
– Issuance of:
• Contract models;
• Wheeling rates;
• Interconnection rules.
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4. Evolution of Renewable Energy
(RE) regulation in Mexico
• Prior to 2008, all RE regulation was issued without the Commission
having explicit powers on the subject.
• All instruments developed by CRE were based on its powers to
regulate the electricity sector and were mainly directed to RE self-
supply projects.
• CRE interpreted that its mandate to promote economic efficiency and
competition within the sector implied the issuance of regulation meant
to correct market failures such as:
– Barriers of entry to RE technologies and
– Externalities.
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5. Specific regulatory powers on
Renewable Energy (RE)
• In 2008, Congress approved the Law for the Use of Renewable
Energies and the Financing of the Energy Transition*, which is
aimed at promoting the diversification of the energy sources used to
generate electricity through the use of RE.
• According to the Law, CRE has an specific mandate to promote
clean energies through the following:
– Issuance of methodologies to estimate:
• Energy and capacity payments for RE generators;
• Contribution of capacity to the system;
• Efficient cogeneration.
– Revision of dispatching rules.
* Ley para el Aprovechamiento de las Energías Renovables y el
Financiamiento de la Transición Energética or LAERFTE 5
6. Renewable Energy:
Main regulatory instruments
• Through self supply schemes:
1. Energy bank (> 0.5 MW);
2. Postage stamp minimum wheeling charges;
3. net metering (low or mid tension);
4. Coordination of open seasons for new transmission lines;
5. Efficient cogeneration criteria.
• Using CFE monopsony condition:
- Energy and capacity payments for RE private generators
(maximum tariffs and auction mechanisms).
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7. 1. “Energy bank”: Basic
characteristics
• Energy is delivered to the grid whenever it is generated;
• Consumption doesn’t need to match generation; energy can be
“accumulated” in the grid and delivered in a different period of time;
• Energy exchange takes place at the prevailing tariff rate in the
interconnection and load points;
• At the end of the year, the permit holder can sell the remaining
“accumulated” energy at 85% of the marginal cost of the system;
• Capacity credit is granted based on the monthly average of power
produced during the weekdays system peak period;
• Emergency energy sold to CFE is paid at 1.5 times the tariff rate.
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8. 1. A graph…
Base Intermediate Peak
Generating
Actual capacity
generation
Electricity
demand
Energy Energy
surplus deficit
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9. 2. Special wheeling rates for RE
• Traditional methodology to calculate transmission rates is based on
energy flows and location of both generation and loads: transmission
rates are higher when it goes with the flow than otherwise.
• Since this logic is not applicable to RE, because generation can not
be located at will, CRE issued postage stamp type rates based on
minimum variable costs.
• Rates are paid according to the tension levels used and are adjusted
by inflation in a monthly basis and the values for January 2012 are:
- High tension 0.03441 MX$/kWh
- Medium tension 0.03441 MX$/kWh
- Low tension 0.06882 MX$/kWh
• Rates do not apply for new infrastructure.
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10. 3. Small and medium scale net
metering
• Typical 1:1 net metering mechanism for users which consume at
the generation point (no transmission).
• Small scale:
– Interconnection at low tension (below 1 kV).
– Residential users, up to 10 kW.
– Commercial users, up to 30 kW.
• Medium scale:
– Interconnection at medium tension (below 69 kV).
– All users, up to 500 kW.
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11. 4. Open seasons for
transmission lines
• New infrastructure to transmit electricity from places where RE is
located, has normally faced coordination problems between permit
holders and CFE (building several transmission lines is uneconomic).
• To avoid these coordination problems, CRE has conducted open
season processes through which is determined the capacity of a new
transmission line to be built; they establish how this new capacity will be
paid, and allocate transmission capacity among the different users.
• In 2008, over 2600 MW of transmission capacity was built through this
process (2000 MW for private projects).
• CRE has recently organized 3 new open seasons for wind projects
(Oaxaca, Tamaulipas and Baja California). It is expected that 5000 MW
of transmission infrastructure shall be built
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12. 5. Other regulation on
renewables
• Dispatching rules
• Interconnection rules
• Capacity credit
• Renewable energy pricing
• Net metering for low and mid tension consumers
• Cogeneration
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