The first of Enel’s self-supply plants — a hydroelectric plant in Michoacán — should obtain a single generation permit in the middle of next year, when the permit that was granted will expire.
“We are already starting talks with the authorities to migrate auto-supply to the wholesale market next year, in 2023,” said José Luis Navarro, Enel’s country manager, who only started work last September. “They just started [las conversaciones]there is still 2022 to go and it will be until 2023, but we wanted to anticipate and have an open dialogue and for now the talks are going well”.
The regulation states that once the validity of the permits expires, the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) must carry out the procedure so that the assets can offer their generation as one more power plant in the market. But the proceedings have been capped for reasons the regulator has not officially disclosed.
Some Self-supply plants have already been disconnected of the network after not being able to renew its interconnection contracts with the state-owned CFE. Users of these types of assets — corporates and industrials — have also already started accelerating their exit from the schemes, according to the regulator’s filings.
A source inside the CRE told Expansion A few weeks ago, not all the migration processes of self-supply plants would be accepted and there is a probability that some of them will fall into disuse.
The power company Enel is also awaiting the granting of permits to start up three wind farms resulting from the electricity auctions, built in Coahuila and completed since 2020, but which have not yet received the documentation from the regulator and the National Energy Control Center to enter the commercial phase.
“We are finishing a process and I am optimistic and I believe that in the following weeks or months we will have the permits,” said Navarro.