The Secretary of Energy, Rocío Nahle García, is in favor of promoting nuclear energy in Mexico to produce electricity, and announced that the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) “is already doing an analysis for a micro” nuclear plant in the Baja California peninsula.
When appearing before the Senate of the Republic, the federal official said: “We want more nuclear energy, yes. I am convinced. In fact, the CFE is already doing an analysis for a micro plant in the Baja California peninsula. They are just starting the studies and they will have to start consultations too. But I am convinced of nuclear energy, it is the cleanest, continuous, and most effective, and also the technology has increased a lot ”.
She added that the United States has around 40 nuclear terminals and that “it is time for Mexico to talk about nuclear, because the issued has been banned, and it is a very beneficial energy source.”
In this matter, the Secretary of Energy stated that the Laguna Verde Nuclear Plant in the state of Veracruz has invested 4 billion pesos to have stable maintenance, and stressed that this plant -the only one of its kind in the country- complies with all regulations and security standards.
Nahle García assured that Mexico will fully comply with its commitment to producing 35% of the electrical energy consumed in the country with clean energy by the year 2024.
She recalled that there are problems in the two Mexican peninsulas (Baja California and Yucatán). The first being an isolated system, and the second because there was no gas connectivity, which caused the electricity rates to skyrocket.
“But thanks to the fact that the gas pipeline is already in place, the Mérida 4 combined cycle plant, which will be in front of the Yucatán airport, was put out to tender to generate electricity and lower costs. In addition, a 230-kilometer pipeline runs from Yucatán to Cancun to bring electricity to Quintana Roo,” Nahle added.
Regarding the progress of the CFE, Nahle García indicated that from September 2019 to June 2019, 6 substation projects, high and medium voltage lines were built, with an investment of 1.1 billion pesos. “CFE Distribución has 7 projects for an amount of 962 million pesos, and 3 more in competition to be concluded in 2022, for 1.5 billion pesos”, she highlighted.
As of June 2020, the general electrical networks increased 15,802 kilometers, to add 903 thousand kilometers in the country. CFE had 44.6 million users, and had sales of 162,407 GW of power.
In addition, the CFE built 4 combined cycle plants and one geothermal plant with a capacity of 3,400 MW, and there are 3 plants under tender for an additional 1,386 MW.
The Energy Secretary defended the increase in the porting fee of a few weeks ago as, according to what she said, past administrations left 284 legacy contracts that caused losses of 22.8 billion pesos due to lack of adequate porting.
The official presented a graph in which she showed legislators that Mexico had a rate of 0.07 for renewables before and how this was increased to 0.52 with the current adjustment. However, the rate is lower than that of the United States, of 1.01. And higher than that of the European Union 0.32, and that of Canada, 0.49
Source: FORBES MEXICO
