Mexican Utility Research Articles

Electricity consumption, subsidies, and policy inequalities in Mexico: Data from 100,000 households

This paper estimates electricity consumption and subsidies for each of the Mexican households surveyed in the ENCEVI and the ENIGH in 2018. Using information from the Mexican Utility Federal Electricity Commission (CFE, Comisión Federal de Electricidad), we expand these two datasets into a comprehensive source of electricity consumption for 100,000 households representative of all of Mexico. Our estimates show that large consumers receive large subsidies, with the top 20 % of the highest consuming households receiving 50 % of the subsidies. We also find that electricity consumption is determined by socio-economic status. In the extremely hot region, families in the highest income decile consume 57 %–66 % more than those in the lowest. For this reason, Mexicans in the highest income brackets benefit the most from subsidies; the average subsidy per household for those in the two highest income brackets is almost twice the average subsidy for those in the lowest bracket. • A comprehensive dataset with estimates of electricity consumption and subsidies in the Mexican residential sector was created • The residential electricity consumption in Mexico varies significantly by climatic region, socioeconomic status, and season. • Without subsidies, the electricity burden of households in the lowest income deciles would increase approximately 2.2 times. • Almost forty cents of every dollar spent on electricity subsidies is allocated to households with the highest income quintile.

Private Vs. Public Investment In The Mexican Utility Company: A Case Study

How should the strategies and regulations of the Mexican laws be designed in order to trigger a country to go from a non-sustainable energy economy towards a sustainable energy economy? This paper proposes a classroom debate of the reformed Law of Public Electricity Service in Mexico (LSPEE, 1992: Ley del Servicio Publico de Energia Electrica), which, in 1992, opened new opportunities for private investment in the Mexican utility industry. The legal reforms allow the private sector to invest, operate, and be owners of part of the public utility system in Mexico, mainly, for power generation. Evaluating the dilemmas of the past, students are encouraged to debate present and future reforms considering political, economic and financial frameworks with a sustainable development approach and to evaluate the role of foreign and private investment in public utilities around the world.

Direct current lightning tests on Optical Ground Wires

In the last 19 years, the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), proprietary of the transmission lines in all the country, has proceeded to replace its conventional overhead earth wires by Optical Ground Wires (OPGW) which is expected to lead to a better incentive. Indeed, those wires include in addition to the traditional protection aspect against atmospheric discharges, the ability to remotely control and operate the grid as well as passing telecommunications. The OPGW's are designed based on the electrical and mechanical specifications required by the end user to fit a given application. Nevertheless, the position of the wire at the top of the transmission towers is to protect the power phases below against lightnings. Therefore, the designer should guaranty its physical integrity as well as its additional functionalities under any atmospheric conditions which can be realized through direct current lightning tests as defined by the national specification given in CFE E000-21-2011 and the international standard IEC 60794-1-2. In addition, it is necessary to define the polarity applied during the tests in order to obtain a representative level of damages found in the field. Implementations of the this specification and the international standard has been carried out and various tests have been conducted on OPGW's for the Mexican utility grid. The results have been compared to actual damages found in the field.

Condensate system modelling in real time for a training power plant simulator

In this paper, the basis of the models of the condensate water and the air cooled condenser are presented. The models are part of a full scope simulator of a 450 MW combined cycle power plant. The simulator is executed in real time and is intended to be a support for the training of the operators of the Comisian Federal de Electricidad (the Mexican utility company). The simulator is presently in the final acceptance tests stage and is programmed to be in commercial operation in 2010. Here, are included a summary of the modelling methodology used to develop the referred models and the mathematical fundaments used to obtain the main equations. The tendencies of selected variables during a transient are displayed and analysed in order to probe the validity of the new generic models.

Active correlation technology applied to maintenance program based on voltage sags control

This paper presents an Active Correlation Technology (ACT) for voltage sag detection and control. ACT is a conceptual architecture developed by IBM and can be successfully implemented to manage maintenance activities of distribution networks. As an instrument, maintenance clearly impacts on system reliability and quality of supply, i.e., very limited maintenance will result in an excessive number of costly failures and poor system performance, and therefore, reliability and quality of supply are degraded; done often, both reliability and quality of supply may improve but the cost of maintenance will sharply increase. Efficient maintenance schemes consider condition monitoring and maintenance activities are performed when a threshold pattern is violated. In this paper, a correlation engine is proposed to set voltage sag threshold patterns to detect abnormal sag incidence on MV feeders and trigger alarms to indicate the need for maintenance activities. The central ideas are validated with records obtained from a medium voltage circuit operated by one of the distribution divisions of the Mexican utility.

Reclosing principle application on the low voltage side of distribution transformers

Field results of the reclosing principle application on the low voltage side of distribution transformers are presented. This work was carried out in order to assess the outage time reduction yielded by a recloser especially developed for this application. An adapted service based on standard molded case circuit breakers is described, as well as the series of tests performed on the prototype, both in the laboratory and in the field. Eight low voltage reclosers were installed on different distribution areas of the Mexican Utility (CFE), and the operational results obtained so far are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An Integer Programming Approach and Implementation for an Electric Utility Capacity Planning Problem with Renewable Energy Sources

This paper presents an integer programming model and algorithm for an electric utility capacity expansion problem which considers the option of investing in nondispatchable or renewable energy sources. A branch-and-bound algorithm is proposed for this problem in which the continuous relaxation of the subproblem associated with each node in the enumeration tree is solved via an efficient two-phase procedure. This procedure solves a deterministic approximation of the problem in the first phase in order to determine a quick near-optimal solution. The resulting solution is subsequently refined in a second phase using more accurate techniques to represent the negative load due to the renewable sources, and to perform the probabilistic production costing. This technique conserves about 80% of the effort which would be required without the deterministic phase. An implementation of this approach is described for the Tijuana-Mexicali subsystem of the Mexican utility, which is not connected to the rest of the Mexican electric system, and which faces a very high summer peak load and a comparatively low winter load. The results suggest that along with a prescribed capacity expansion of conventional equipments, the utility should invest in some solar cooling systems, and, more pertinently, should involve itself intensely in conservation measures in homes of individual customers.

English Investments in Mexico: A Story of Bonanzas and Heartbreaks

TTIS not likely that even the nominal total of English capital invested in Mexico at any point of time between 1901 and 1950 will ever be determined with a satisfactory degree of accuracy. Shortly after the turn of the century, English, Canadian, and United States capitalists all began to invest in several of the leading Mexican utility companies, and within a few years the confusion was worse confounded by the injection of Continental capital and the organization of giant holding companies. Beginning with 1904, Mexican bond issues, whether in sterling, dollars, francs, or pesos, were sold in all the great markets of the world, and the same was true of the securities of the Mexican National Railways (Ferrocarriles Nacionales) after 1908. The following estimates of the total nominal investment are offered after considerable investigation, computation, and meditation :2