In light of the possibility that President Donald Trump may use Mexico's high dependence on U.S. natural gas as a bargaining tool, our country already has a contingency plan to avoid power outages, explained Jorge Islas, Undersecretary of Planning and Energy Transition of the Ministry of Energy.
Although the issue of natural gas is a rumor circulating among U.S. congressmen, Mexico's hydroelectric dams that produce electricity are full, so they could help cover any contingency and avoid 'blackouts'. Currently, more than 60 percent of Mexico's electricity generation is based on natural gas.
"We already have some thermal power plants that are on standby reserve that can also be activated, we have mechanisms to avoid contingencies," the official commented during the inauguration of the Expo RE+ taking place in Guadalajara.
Islas added that another resource available to the Government is coal-fired plants. "When Pemex's gas pipelines froze due to the contingency in Texas and gas could not flow, at that moment we all said 'how good that we have coal-fired and fuel oil plants', which we know is very dirty, but it managed to provide us with electricity," he pointed out.
"There may be contingencies, climatic, price-related, we all depend more on gas and tomorrow, if gas prices rise, what are we going to do?" Islas expressed, referring to the possibility of supply issues with gas from the United States.
A standby reserve in the energy sector refers to the electricity generation capacity that is not in operation but can be activated in case of need. The administration of Claudia Sheinbaum plans to keep energy sources considered dirty as a 'standby reserve' due to the uncertainty surrounding energy contingencies in Mexico.
Jorge Islas explained that during the previous six-year term, the Paris Agreement was not fulfilled for two main reasons: climatic problems that affected the production of clean energy and legal conflicts between private entities and the Government that paralyzed the sector.
In Claudia Sheinbaum's term, there is a plan to increase investments for the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) by 80 percent, allocating significant sums for generation, transmission, and distribution, with the aim of increasing installed capacity to meet the growing electricity demand in Mexico. It is expected that by 2030, 38 percent of electricity generation will come from clean sources. Additionally, it is anticipated that private entities could maintain up to 46 percent of electricity generation in Mexico, paving the way for possible joint projects between the Government and the private sector.
