CRE Seeks to Grant CELs to CFE Plants

CRE could reopen the debate on granting Clean Energy Certificates (CEL) to CFE’s generation plants. The commission pointed out that it will discuss the criteria for these certificates based on the requirements for the year 2021. 

Ángel Jiménez, Commissioner, CRE, highlighted the importance of accounting all clean energy that derives from the national energy system. “CELs must become mechanisms that guarantee the settlement of new investments in our country,” he said during CRE’s last extraordinary session, where the criteria for the allocation of available CELs was approved. 

CELs are certificates issued by CRE that accredit the production of a certain amount of clean energy and that serve to meet the requirements associated with the consumption of load centers. The CEL market is part of the Wholesale Electricity Market (MEM), which allows participants to purchase and sell CELs to demonstrate compliance with clean energy obligations, which are established and updated every year. In 2022, CEL requirements established that 13.9% of the electricity produced by all participants of this sector had to come from clean energy sources. 

CELs have been subject of controversy since their prices were based on the long-term auctions that the government conducted in the prior administration and that were officially canceled in 2019. President López Obrador tried to change the LIE to allow clean energy plants established prior to the reform, which are mainly owned by CFE, to benefit from this market. After the petition was suspended by a jury, they tried to modify Art. 25, 27 and 28 of the constitution, an attempt that was also unsuccessful. 

The CEL market remains valid and it is up to the Ministry of Energy to establish its conditions and to CRE to regulate it. Although the Constitution and the LIE could not be modified, agreements can be reached to slow down the implementation of this market and to benefit CFE. In 2021, 37.5% of the energy produced by CFE was classified as clean. This was mainly produced through hydroelectric plants, the nuclear plant Laguna Verde, as well as geothermal plants.