On May 15th, 2020, the Energy Ministry (“SENER”) published in the Federal Official Gazette, an administrative resolution (the “Resolution”) by means of which the new public policy to guarantee the reliability, safety, continuity and quality of the Electric National System was issued.
As per the referred Resolution, new rules and regulations were provided to all electric industry participants, including those engaged in electric generation by means of renewable energies such as photovoltaic and wind sources.
The public policy included in the referred Resolution would imply, among others:
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- New rules and technical considerations / criteria to issue electric generation permits.
- Additional procedures and required opinions from the National Centre of Energy Control (“CENACE”) to: (i) proceed and authorize the corresponding interconnection studies; and (ii) authorize the interconnection of power plants and connection of load centers to the national electric system.
- New conditions to be included in the electric generation permits to be issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission (“CRE”) and the interconnection / connection agreements to be signed with the Federal Electric Commission (“CFE”).
- For expansion and modernization programs related to the national transmission networks and general distribution networks, new considerations will be taken, including limits per region, zone and systems to incorporate intermittent clean energies (photovoltaic and wind), as well as distributed energies.
- The National Electric System Development Program (Programa de Desarrollo del Sistema Eléctrico Nacional or PRODESEN, for its acronym in Spanish) will include limits per region, zones and systems regarding distributed energies by means of intermittent clean energies.
- SENER may define strategic projects of power plants which development is considered necessary to comply with the National Energy Policy, which preference will be considered and given for their interconnection to the national transmission and the general distribution networks.
- CENACE, based on sufficiency, dispatch security and economic efficiency criteria may reject interconnection studies petitions filed for any intermittent clean energy power plant, for an interconnection point, zone or region already having congested transmission or transformation elements.
It is worth noting that the Resolution referred herein has caused controversy among the industry.
The lawyers of the energy and infrastructure area at firm are available for any questions or comments on the above.
Juan Carlos Serra
serra@basham.com.mx
Jorge Eduardo Escobedo Montaño
jescobedo@basham.com.mx
Miguel Figueroa Morgado
mfigueroa@basham.com.mx
Pedro Reynoso Ramín
preynoso@basham.com.mx
Mexico City, May 18th 2020.
