MEXICO Trends and Developments Contributed by: Bernardo Cortés and Fernando Quesada, Cortés Quesada Abogados, S.C.
Cortés Quesada Abogados, S.C. Av. Santa Fe 505 Fl. 1 MZ 2B Santa Fe Cuajimalpa Cuajimalpa, 05348 Mexico City Mexico
Tel: +52 55 5293 9360 Fax: +52 55 5293 9360 Email: contacto@cortesquesada.com.mx Web: www.cortesquesada.com.mx
Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution in Mexico: an Introduction Constitutional reforms of 2024 Following the 2024 general elections in Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum (the first woman to hold the office) and her party Morena and allies secured a supermajority vote in both Chambers of the Congress. This political mandate enables the new administration to amend the Mexican Constitution, ushering in a new political and legal order, with the energy sector emerging as a top priority. In alignment with the principles proposed by outgoing President Lopez Obrador, the Mexi- can Congress approved a constitutional reform on strategic areas and companies. This reform had far-reaching implications for the electricity industry, including: • a change of the nature of (former) State- productive companies, now transformed into public State companies, covering both Petróleos Mexicanos (the national oil com- pany) and Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE – the national power utility company);
• listing certain activities performed by State public companies as exclusive strategic areas; • expanding CFE’s statutory purpose and objectives to include social responsibility, guarantee of continuity and access to elec- tricity services; • prioritising the participation of the State (particularly through CFE) over private par- ticipants in the activities performed in the Mexican electricity industry; • establishing national planning objectives and control of the National Electricity System (NES), such as securing electricity service, the preservation of energy security and self-suf- ficiency, as well as the provision of electricity services at the lowest possible cost (avoiding profit); and • repealing the transitory provisions of the 2013 constitutional reform of energy matters, which fully liberalised power generation and market- ing activities. Separately, in December 2024 Congress approved another constitutional reform on organisational simplification (also inherited from President Lopez Obrador), which impacted the
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