Mexico’s Nuevo León state unveils energy plan for nearshoring demand

Mexico’s Nuevo León state, the country’s top nearshoring destination, is readying a strategy to guarantee sufficient energy supply for the estimated 165 investments announced by companies in the last two years, totaling about US$25bn. 

At the Inter Solar Mexico event in Mexico City on Tuesday, the head of Nuevo León's renewable energy promotion agency, Eduardo Daniel Sánchez Martínez, confirmed these investments and said his office has mapped them out into 25 different energy polygons.

“Having this mapped out, we can identify the location of the main substations at the transmission level” he said, adding that the strategy is now focusing on “demand planning and identifying the reinforcement or expansion works that are required in the transmission and distribution networks in the area.”

“We know where the new companies are arriving, where the existing ones are, where the industrial parks are under development and where the new ones will be installed if the trend continues,” he added. 

On the sidelines of the event, Sánchez said that there is 900MW in new connection projects awaiting approval from grid coordinator Cenace and that some firms are opting for presenting collective requests for new projects to speed up processing and share capex. 

“There are certain projects that are taking place between industrial developers or high consumption companies in which they're betting on grouped requests. These requests allow companies to share the investment in infrastructure to be able to connect their loads,” he said.

Nuevo León has been the state where most nearshoring investments have been announced. For example, US electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla said in March that it would build a new US$5bn gigafactory in Santa Catarina municipality. 

Sánchez said he could not comment on the company’s clean energy plans, especially those related to renewable energies, but did say that several renewable projects are on the way.