CDMX inaugurates Metro-Energy Power Substation
Home > Energy > Article

CDMX inaugurates Metro-Energy Power Substation

Photo by:   Adi Goldstein - Unsplash
Share it!
Eliza Galeana By Eliza Galeana | Junior Journalist & Industry Analyst - Wed, 01/18/2023 - 11:17

On Jan. 17, 2023, the Metro Collective Transport System, CFE and Mexico City’s government inaugurated the power substation called Metro-Energy. The project aims to modernize the electricity supply system of Lines 1, 2 and 3 of Mexico City’s subway.

The goal of Metro-Energy was to replace and improve the electrical power supply of the Metro’s three oldest lines, inaugurated more than 50 years ago. Guillermo Calderón, Director General, the Mexico City Metro, explained that the project consists of three phases. The first two were completed within one year and the third one is still in progress.

The substation includes the construction of three buildings in an area of 5,505m2, which  houses four power transformers, an encapsulated substation of 230kV, 15kV medium voltage switches as well as protection, control and measurement boards. Moreover, the energy control building houses the interface used to control and supervise the substation and provide the electrical energy for the subway lines. 

Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico City’s Mayor, stressed that Metro-Energy is one of the largest and most modern electrical substations in the country. “The project can feed a city the size of Villahermosa and supply the energy needs of about 300,000 people,” she said. Sheinbaum added that the substation is connected to the grid, which “provides greater reliability and reduces the costs of electricity consumption.”

The project had an investment of MX$4.5 billion (US$240.6 million) and was carried out entirely by government institutions. After the January 2021 fire, which affected six lines of the subway, Sheinbaum’s government allied with CFE to build a new power supply system from scratch. They sought to develop an independent substation and equipped with safety mechanisms to protect it against earthquakes and fires. "This work could have consisted merely of the replacement of a transformer or a wire but we decided to transform everything. These are public resources that are intended to benefit people," she asserted.

Furthermore, the mayor said Line 1 of the subway is also under renovation, along with the creation of a new central control post to improve the flow and monitoring of trains, among other future projects. "We want to leave the subway in a better state than we received it. We made a historic investment of more than MX$40 billion (US$2.1 billion) in Metro-Energy, the modernization of Line 1 and the construction of the Central Control Post. If required, more resources will be allocated," Sheinbaum said. 

Calderón pointed out that subway workers will be trained by CFE personnel to attend to the energy supply. Likewise, the migration of the previous electrical substation to the new system will take a couple of weeks so it can be done gradually without interruptions to the Metro’s operations.

Photo by:   Adi Goldstein - Unsplash

You May Like

Most popular

Newsletter