Mexico suspends upcoming auction for renewables

Mexico’s National Center for Energy Control (CENACE) has informed all interested parties, potential buyers and bidders that the country’s upcoming auction for large-scale renewable energy projects has been temporarily suspended.

CENACE said the suspension is due to administration changes in the entities involved, which means the country’s state-owned power utility Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), the Energy Secretariat (SENER) and CENACE itself. This will provide the opportunity for the parties involved to review the objectives and scope of the auction process, while also strengthening the principles of maximum publicity and transparency, CENACE said.

The changes in the management of both entities, of course, depend on the recent election of Mexico’s new President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is commonly referred as AMLO. After his appointment, severel other energy auctions, as well as auctions to improve the grid, were suspended. In all of his statements on the future of the energy sector, AMLO has said his primary goal is to eliminate corruption.

The fourth long-term power auction, originally scheduled for November, was previously delayed to mid-December. At the time, Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission CRE and CENACE said the delay was made in order to provide the auction with more visibility.

In the previous three auctions of the same kind, which were held between 2016 and 2017, around 6 GW of solar power was contracted. In the third auction, the world’s cheapest solar bid of US$20.57 per MWh was recorded.