Mexico’s Gálvez presents transmission plan

Mexican presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez wants to make transmission infrastructure a top energy priority if victorious in the June 2 elections. 

During the presentation of her infrastructure program before investors in Mexico City on Monday, the former senator said that she would use state power utility CFE to upgrade the national transmission network to keep up with rising demand. 

Although she did not specify projects, Gálvez, who represents the opposition, said the north, northeast and west, which are seeing a nearshoring boom, are top priorities. 

Gálvez wants to advance the energy transition, after the President Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration, which took office in 2018, prioritized fossil fuel production and consumption. 

So far, she has vowed to build 100 renewable projects, bring back auctions so the private sector can compete against CFE in the generation segment, and recover the legal framework that was implemented with the 2013 energy reforms López Obrador has weakened.

“Electricity auctions will be resumed to reduce the cost of energy and so that it becomes increasingly cleaner and, of course, cheaper,” she said.

Gálvez’s energy plan also involves sectorization of regions for distribution purposes. For example, installed solar capacity should be prioritized for the north, while installed wind capacity would be used for the Tehuantepec isthmus region between Oaxaca and Veracruz states and the central area. 

The Baja California peninsula would receive energy from its northeast and the Yucatán peninsula’s solar potential should benefit the country’s interior. 

“The generation permits that the law allows will be granted to those companies that wish to take charge of their supply. We are not going to hinder companies. What we want is for companies to grow, generate jobs and pay taxes. And send that money to culture, health and education,” she said.

The next president will take office October 1.