• DEFENSE: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended his plans to strengthen Mexico’s state power utility (CFE) just one day after the Financial Times revealed a Government blueprint to curb private sector participation in the electricity generation by increasing transmission costs.
• MONOPOLY: “We are going to compete in an even playing field with private companies, which, in addition to selling expensive energy to the CFE, received subsidies”, said López Obrador insisting that he’s not trying to resurrect the state’s monopoly. By law, CFE has a monopoly in transmission.
• NUMBERS: Despite the President’s argument, data from Mexico’s energy regulatory commission (CRE) shows that average production costs for CFE were at USD 141.21 per MWh at the beginning of 2019. Meanwhile, the price agreed in the last clean-energy auction was at USD 20.57 per MWh.
• BUDGET: “Although we don’t pay more for our CFE bill (as final customers), we do pay more by allocating more budget resources (for CFE)”, said Paul Sánchez, an energy expert at Ombudsman Energía México, adding that the Government’s plan would displace cleaner and cheaper options.
