On Feb. 6-7, Mexico News Daily and Querencia hosted the “Future of Mexico Forum” at the Querencia Private Golf & Beach Club in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur. The forum brought together leaders from Mexico and the United States to discuss the future of Mexico across a diverse range of topics. As part of this Forum, the MND team conducted a series of exclusive interviews with each of the speakers and will be sharing the highlights with you in this series.
On the second day of the event, the CEO of Querencia Jorge Carrera moderated a session on “Mexico’s Energy Landscape” with Jesús Carmona Colina, president and managing director of Schneider Electric Mexico & Central America.
In a subsequent interview with Mexico News Daily, Carmona said that Schneider, a France-based multinational, is a “world leader” in “electrical distribution, industrial automation, associated services and sustainability services.”
“So we enable electricity to happen,” he said.
Carmona noted that Schneider has been in Mexico for 80 years and has 19,500 workers here as well as 11 plants including an intellectual manufacturing hub in Monterrey.
He said that most of the products the company makes in Mexico — such as low-voltage electrical distribution boards — are exported to the United States.
This article largely focuses on the electricity situation in Mexico. It draws on Carmona’s comments in his forum session, and his remarks during his interview with MND.
‘I think we’re moving in the right direction’
Carmona said that President Claudia Sheinbaum has “correctly recognized that more energy is needed in Mexico” to meet demand, including from the country’s growing industrial sector.
He also noted that there is an energy imbalance in Mexico, with ample electricity in some parts of the country and a shortfall in others.
Among the federal government’s energy objectives, as outlined in the Plan México economic initiative, is to increase electricity generation by 22,000 megawatts, or 22 gigawatts by 2030. In Plan México, the government said it would invest US $12.3 billion over the next six years to build new power plants, $7.5 billion to strengthen transmission networks and $3.6 billion to improve distribution networks.
Separately, the Sheinbaum administration recently submitted six bills to Congress that are aimed at the implementation of an energy reform that was approved by ruling party lawmakers late last year.
Sheinbaum sends Congress implementation plan for energy reform
Under the reform, the Mexican state via the Federal Electricity Commission has a constitutional right to generate and supply the majority (54%) of electricity in Mexico. Private companies share the remaining 46% of the market.
Referring to the government’s electricity plans, Carmona said that “even if they don’t work to the full extent,” they will still be “beneficial for Mexico.”
“Maybe if you just get 60% of what’s outlined, or 50% or 40%, it’s better than doing nothing,” he said.
“… So do I see positive indications that we’re on the right path with the new energy reform? With allowing the 46-54 [share of the electricity market] between private and public, with allowing the 700 kilowatts for self-generation without permits, with allowing 700 kilowatts to 20 megawatts [self-generation] with permits and storage? Yes, I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Carmona said.
“Does it mean everything in … [the plans] I like? No there are things I believe probably could be done differently, but I’d rather spend my time on what will work rather than complaining about the nuances of what I’d prefer to be different,” he said.
Carmona stressed that Mexico needs to “unlock the potential for electricity self-sufficiency,” which homes and companies can achieve through measures such as the installation of solar panels. He highlighted that electricity consumers can also be producers.
Carmona also said he is hopeful that private investment in Mexico’s electricity sector will accelerate once the new energy reform is implemented.
Increasing electricity generation and supply capacity is of course essential to meet the demand created by Mexico’s approximately 130 million people, many of whom are no strangers to blackouts. Greater electricity availability — including that generated from renewable sources — is also seen as a crucial enabling factor to allow Mexico to attract more foreign investment amid what has been described as a “once-in-a-generation” nearshoring opportunity.
Carmona says renewable energy situation is ‘far from what we desire,’ but he is optimistic about change
During last year’s presidential election campaign, Sheinbaum committed to spending more than US $13 billion in a renewables-focused energy plan and declared that an administration she leads would “accelerate the energy transition.”
Sheinbaum has vowed to expand renewable energy to 45% of total power generation in Mexico by 2030, compared to around 24% in 2022.
Carmona said he believes that Mexico will “move in the right direction” with regard to increasing the use of renewables in the years ahead.
“We might dislike the pace, but I think we’ll move in the right direction in terms of how the Mexican energy matrix — clean vs not clean — will look moving forward, which today is far from what we desire,” he said.
Carmona said that all new self-generation projects will generate clean energy.
“The fastest way to set up a new plant for five megawatts … is solar,” he said.
“… Sun is something we get [in Mexico]. We get good quality sun for solar energy production,” Carmona said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
