Distributed Generation Grew 30% During 2022

According to the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), national distributed generation grew almost 30% between 2021 and 2022. By the end of 2022, installed capacity reached 2.6GW. Despite this, investments did not advance as expected. 

In 2022, distributed power generation lower than 0.5MW grew 598.5MW, going from 2.03GW to 2.6GW, which represented an increase of 29.4%. CRE’s report shows that of the total volume of installed capacity, 247.59 MW or 9.4%, corresponds to Small and Medium Scale Interconnection Contracts (CIPyME), which is equivalent to 6.3% of total national net energy demand. 

Regarding interconnection contracts, at the end of 2022, 334,984 documents were handed in, 23.8% more than 270,506 contracts received in 2021. Overall, 62.5% of the contracts refer to an installed capacity lower than 195kW and 8.8% correspond to CIPyMEs. 

Photovoltaic panels remain by far the most sought-after technology for the installation of distributed generation systems under 0.5MW. In 2022, the installed capacity on solar panels equaled 2,611MW, representing 99.3% of the total distributed capacity. Bio natural gas stands on the second position for distributed generation with 14.21MW or 0.5%, leaving biomass in third place with 2MW or 0.07%. Wind energy barely reached 0.66MW, which represents 0.02% of the total installed. 

During the reported period, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon and Chihuahua continued to lead in terms of distributed generation with 407MW, 282MW and 176.5MW, respectively. Likewise, the mentioned states delivered the most interconnection contracts with CFE. In this regard, 61,706 corresponded to Jalisco, 36,948 to Nuevo Leon and 26,428 to Chihuahua.  Together, the three states account for 32.9% of the total national installed capacity and 37.3% of interconnection contracts. On the other hand, Tlaxcala, Campeche and Tabasco, stand at the end of the list with less than 17MW of installed capacity and 1,900 contracts. 

CRE reported that despite a significant growth in installed distributed generation capacity during 2022, investments stayed almost flat. In 2021, investments reached US$3.515 billion and in 2022, they rose to US$3.522 billion for a 0.2% growth.