CFE stagnates in clean electricity generation

In the first four months of the year, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) generated a total of 71,549 gigawatt hours, of which 81% corresponded to thermoelectric energy and the remaining 19% to other energies considered clean because they do not emit greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.

This proportion is below the 29% of clean energy produced in the country when including private generation, while the federal government has reported on its plans that the state itself will lead the energy transition towards the goal of 35% clean energy by 2024.

But in addition, this proportion has fallen from the 77% of thermoelectric energy produced in 2014 and the 23% of clean energy of this same period, derived from the entry into operation and efficiencies under the current dispatch model by private parties in the country, according to the reports of the state-owned power company.

According to the Energy Information System (SIE) of the Ministry of Energy, between January and April 2022 the CFE generated 58,259 gigawatt hours through what it classifies as thermoelectric energy, that is: steam, natural gas combined cycles, gas turbines, internal combustion machinery, dual generators and carboelectric plants. Meanwhile, the other 19%, that is, 13,289 gigawatt hours between January and April 2022, corresponded to clean energies such as geothermal, nuclear, wind, photovoltaic and hydroelectric.

Compared to what was produced a decade ago, the CFE's total generation in the first four-month period shows a 3% reduction; meanwhile, thermoelectric generation has also fallen, by 5% in 10 years, while clean energy generation has increased by 8% in this period.

In the combined cycle, steam, turbogas and internal combustion, both CFE and independent power producers (IPP) in 10 years the increase in generation is 6%, while the total wind generation reported by the state electric company has increased 11 times in 10 years, derived from the contribution of the IPPs that the generation of the IPPs in the whole country has increased 37% while what CFE itself generates has been reduced by 53%. The photovoltaic generation reported by CFE has in turn decreased by 41 percent in a decade.

Annual variations

In one year, the total energy generation of the state-owned electric company increased 7% compared to the first four months of last year, thanks to the recovery after the increase in mobility and different economic activities. Thermal generation increased by 10%, while clean generation also grew, but by 6%.

Combined cycles, steam, turbogas and internal combustion, both of the CFE and the PIEs had an increase of 7% in their annual activity and in the first four months of the year reported a generation of 52,859 gigawatt hours. At the same time, coal-fired generation was 5,400 gigawatt hours.

Meanwhile, renewable energy reported by the CFE showed year-on-year declines. In the case of wind generation, it fell 7% with a reported 694.6 gigawatt hours, both from the generation operated by the state-owned company in La Venta, Oaxaca, where the annual reduction was 7.5%, and from the generation of the PIEs.

Finally, the Santa Rosalía solar farm in Baja California Sur, which entered into CFE operations in 2013, had a generation of 2.6 gigawatt hours, with an annual reduction of 7% in the first four months of the year.

Last Friday, during his participation in the Major Economies virtual forum on Energy and Action, convened by the United States, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ratified his government's commitment that by 2024 the country will generate 35% of its electricity with clean sources, for which reason the current administration will install 2,085 megawatts of capacity in this line.

karo.garcia@eleconomista.mx