Although the initiative constitutional reform in electrical matters cancel the clean energy certificates (CEL), experts on the subject assured that it can be maintained as an incentive to increase renewable capacity as long as the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) its clean generation, which would make it necessary to increase the requirements of these instruments for all participants in the electricity sector.
During the discussion of Congress Channel on the third day of discussions of the Open Parliament in the Chamber of Deputies vis-à-vis the electric reformNelson Delgado, CEO of the Mexican Solar Energy Associationexplained that the CEL market designed in the 2013 reform by the Electricity Industry (LIE) and Energy Transition (LTE) laws stipulated that all sector participants went from an obligation to 5% of their energy in 2018 allow consumption or generate up to 13.9% of its energy from 2022.
If they do not have this energy, those who do generate it can sell it as clean energy certificates, with these goals in line with Mexico’s commitment in the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to reach 35% of clean energy on national average in 2024, and 50% by 2050.
“It is designed to encourage the placement of new clean energy plants and it has been fulfilled. “Of course, it did not include plants that have already been built, such as those of CFE, which is also on average more than 30 years old, so it generates a lot of environmental externalities and requires maintenance,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that the generation in Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Station or the hydroelectric can receive clean energy certificates and this will not require a reform of the Constitution, but at the level of agreements such as those established linked to the aforementioned laws. But if the above is carried out, the obligations of clean energy participation will have to be increased, because otherwise the committed goals would not be achieved.
Miguel López, Deputy Director of Contracting and Services of the CFE, explained that the initiative of electric reform It does not consist in delaying generation by clean energy, but in eliminating the transfer of resources from the CFE to private companies and even laying the foundations for the energy transition in the Constitution.
Therefore, in addition to the cancellation of the exemption regimes for legacy contracts of the previous regime (self-sufficiency and independent energy producers), the CELs will also be eliminated as designed, looking for a mechanism that does not take away resources from the CFE.
“The CELs served to anchor private investment, they did not aim to increase renewable energy, but to bring foreign investment into reality,” he explained.
And it is that, as already mentioned, in addition to paying the local marginal price, without charging their transmission or distribution, a contract for 15 years of their energy is signed at a fixed price in which, since their costs do not fuel , they will always be the cheapest energy and first to be sent and will also have additional resources each month that the CFE has to pay them for clean generators, with which the state company eventually pays triple the energy.
Diego Rasilla González, a specialist in electricity and natural gas, said in his speech against the reform initiative that the transitional goal was achieved until last year only thanks to private companies that generate 90% of renewable energy from the country since 2020. 133 solar and wind farms, but it will take an additional 14,000 clean megawatts per year (a volume that represents twice the wind capacity installed in the country in 10 years) to achieve the clean energy targets, and that is why private participation in the sector is still needed.
Finally, Jorge Toro, of the Council of the National Technological Education System, explained that Mexico’s participation in global emissions is proportionally 1.2 of carbon dioxide emissions, and “whatever we do, if the countries that actually broadcast do not make their decisions. to reduce their damage does not matter what Mexico does and it does not mean that we do nothing, but in fact our contribution is minimal and the pressure is great, disproportionate ”.
And the fact is that, although the route to combat climate change in the electricity sector continues, it is about a framework that allows the increase of clean energy without damaging the finances of the CFE, because then there would not even be a company about not be. to subsidize private companies as it did.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx