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Mexico cancels fourth energy auction

The Mexican National Center for Energy Control (CENACE) announced it has cancelled the fourth long-term energy auction at the request of Mexico’s Department on Energy (SENER).

The auction had been temporarily suspended in early December, the government said at the time, while its targets and scope were to be reviewed by the local utility Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), and the SENER and CENACE themselves.

The SENER said that the cancellation of the procurement exercise was made in compliance with the current legal framework and technical, economic and energy planning considerations. In December, CENACE said the temporary suspension was due to administrative changes in the entities involved, as a consequence of the election of Mexico’s new President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is commonly referred as AMLO.

The temporary suspension, on the other hand, followed a previous shift of the auction, which was originally scheduled for November.

When and if energy auctions for solar and renewables will be resumed in Mexico is unknown, as the administration Obrador has so far provided very little detail on how it intends to further support renewables through the energy reform.  What it has showed clearly, however, is the intention to pursue a new course.

Mexico has allocated more than 4.8 GW of solar power in the three auctions held over the past years. Solar power projects selected in these auctions are gradually coming online, which is also leading to strong growth in terms of deployed PV, which resulted in a grid-connected installed capacity of around 3 GW as of the end of December 2018.

Source: pv magazine