Impacts and savings of energy efficiency measures: A case for Mexico's electrical grid

Abstract

In the efforts to decarbonize the electricity sector, energy efficiency approaches have consistently shown co-benefits that merit investment and further development. Tools that can help decision-makers evaluate the economic and environmental impacts could accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency measures and support the development of targeted incentives, both spatial and temporally. In this work, a unified, corrected, and high-resolution electricity consumption framework is first developed to produce new data insights with an increased spatial and temporal resolution, allowing the possibility of performing detailed energy policy scenarios. A case scenario for Mexico is constructed, where the impacts in the electrical grid from a suite of energy efficiency measures are quantified at high spatial and temporal resolution. The novel data sets are used to model electricity-reduction approaches in great detail for the most electricity-consuming economic activities in the country. It is shown that commercial electricity consumption is underestimated by up to 3 × in government reports and that US$ 11B could be saved in the wholesale electricity market —equating to 142 MtCO2eq of avoided emissions— if a 12% electricity reduction target is implemented to the top-20 most demanding economic activities over the years 2021–2035. Potential priorities for incentives are identified based on criteria suited for different stakeholders, including economic and environmental justice dimensions.