Towards the liberalization of the energy market: structural changes and implementation challenges of the 2013 Mexican energy reform insights in the energy nexus

Abstract

Through the decades Mexico has gone through different transition stages in its national energy sector, aiming to adopt the best practices from Europe and North America. Since the 2013 energy reform implementation, strategic and structural changes have been made to strengthen the energy transition process. This research analyses the structural changes in the energy industry due to a reform that promotes a transition from a vertical scheme directed by a state monopoly to a liberalized scheme allowing private sector participation through new market mechanisms. In this way, a review of the legal and regulatory framework is presented where new bodies are created or assigned to manage and regularize the several agencies and actors in the sector. Additionally, a multiaxial analysis of the main challenges of implementing renewable energy mega-projects is proposed, considering a structural and socio-cultural approach based on case studies. This analysis reveals that these challenges have political, economic, socio-cultural, and environmental implications, which should generate mechanisms built by the wide variety of stakeholders engaging with the sustainable transition.