The high temperatures that hit the country due to the heat wave caused it to be recorded the hottest May 7 in the history of Mexico, according to data from the National Meteorological Service, which caused an increase in electrical demand and put the National Electrical System ‘in check’.
As a reaction, The National Energy Control Center (CENACE) issued an Emergency Operational State which began at 5:04 p.m. and ended at 5:52 p.m.
According to the Law of the Electrical industrythe Emergency Operating Status must be issued under the following circumstances:
- When in the operation of National Electric System (SEN) there are no adequate reserve margins.
- When the system is operated outside the safety limits.
- When power transfers are greater than recommended.
- At the moment in which there is insufficient rolling reserve, there are operational and design violations and the integrity of the system is compromised, to the point where CENACE can prove that none of the mechanisms provided for in the Market Bases that allow it to acquire power is adequate to respond effectively to imminent conditions of supply rationing, which may affect a significant number of users for a significant period of time.
The controversy of the alerts
On June 20, 2023, the country reached a historic demand for electrical energy of 52,993 MW, which represented an annual increase of 9 percent, which caused CENACE to publish an Operational State of Emergency.
Given this situation, CENACE considered that there was no risk of electricity supply for the country’s 47 million users, and blamed the media for broadcasting blackouts and interruptions in the service.
Due to this reason, CENACE stopped publishing operational alerts on its website, since last year’s high temperatures would cause more alerts and more doubts about whether the National Electric System could support the increase in demand.
In September, once the period of highest demand had passed, CENACE decided to update all the alerts registered during the summer and El Financiero confirmed that, Of the 226 operational alerts that were stopped being uploaded between July and August 2023, 15 turned out to be emergencies.
Ricardo Octavio Mota Palomino, general director of CENACE, pointed out in an interview last year that the alert system collapsed due to the media effervescence that occurred when the heat wave hit a large part of the country, which produced a peak in demand of 13 percent. percent higher than the previous year.
“It was a global phenomenon, not just in Mexico, but fortunately, the supply of electricity was never at risk,” he said.
He explained that CENACE operators are not specialists in communication techniques, so they used to publish technical words that were misinterpreted.
“Suddenly, when a decrease in energy reserves appears, we have the obligation to send an alert, just as when there is a serious problem or some failure, but these are absolutely everyday issues that do not mean that the world is going to end.” “But there is simply a special condition but work is already being done to return to a normal condition,” he stated.
One of the main objectives of these alerts is to inform Mexicans if, at any time, the SEN enters an Emergency Operational State, which can lead to blackouts or power outages throughout the country.
