Regulations of the Electricity Sector Law

On October 3, 2025, the Regulations of the Electricity Sector Law ("RLSE") were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation following the publication of the new Electricity Sector Law ("LSE"), which repealed the Electricity Industry Law ("LIE") and strengthened the modifications to articles 25, 27 and 28 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States to carry out an organizational simplification (disappearance of the Energy Regulatory Commission ("CRE") and the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), and the creation of the National Energy Commission ("CNE"), as well as to establish the new guiding axes of national energy policy.

In this regard, and following the issuance of the LSE, the most relevant points to observe in the RLSE are:

General features:

• The national energy policy will have a social focus, so it incorporates terms and principles focused on guaranteeing the energy justice through a binding planning of the sector maintaining the control and prevalence by the State in strategic projects and matters.

• The now binding planning of the electricity sector will be developed through the Electricity Sector Development Plan (“PLADESE”), instead of the National Electric System Development Program, which will seek at all times the Promotion of energy justice through the State's predominance in electricity generation activities, apart from planning, distribution and transmission.

• It includes the Simplification of administrative processes for strategic projects[1] determined by the Ministry of Energy ("SENER") with the intention of eliminating unnecessary procedures that allow the expeditious execution and implementation of projects that allow promoting and guaranteeing access, reliability, quality, continuity, security and sustainability of the National Electric System ("SEN") and thereby comply with the energy policy.

Permits and Generation Schemes

• La CNE will be the authority responsible for granting permits in terms of generación of electrical energy in all its forms, storage energetic and marketing and supply electric, and the SENER will grant authorizations related to import, export and social impact.

• For self-consumption scheme the difference between self-consumption is considered interconnected and isolated, and the possibility of migrating between one figure and another. A new definition of “own needs on site or premises" for which new terms are introduced such as Self-consumption users y Self-consumption groups.

• The figure of is incorporated microgrids, which are recognized as a Local or community electrical infrastructure capable of operating autonomously or without being interconnected to the SEN, and can operate as an isolated generation system. This figure is primarily intended to allow the incorporation of communities or cooperatives under a shared or mixed self-consumption scheme, the main purpose of which is Energy justice and access to electricity for hard-to-reach regions.

• Generation projects for the Wholesale Electricity Market (MEM) will be subject to the binding planning issued through PLADESE, with the dispatch preference of state-owned power plants prevailing.[2] and ensuring energy justice.

• A new form of mixed participation between the State and private industry is proposed through the development of electricity generation projects through Mixed Development schemes. Within this scheme, two participation mechanisms are proposed: (i) the first is the Long-Term Production, which consists of the development of generation projects by individuals for the exclusive sale of electric energy and associated products to the State Productive Company (CFE) or its subsidiaries, and (ii) the second is the Mixed Investment, in which the generation project is developed jointly by private individuals and the State-owned company, considering that the State's participation must be at least 54% of the project's common capital.

Storage, Electromobility and CELs

• The figure of the energy storage as an activity regulated by the CNE, establishing the different modalities under which these systems may participate in energy generation and marketing activities, as well as the way in which they can be integrated into the infrastructure of the National Transmission Network and General Distribution Networks to maintain the accessibility, quality, reliability, continuity, efficiency, security and sustainability of the SEN.[3]

• The figure of the "Registered Agent" is contemplated for the first time in the Mexican regulatory framework. electromobility, which is recognized as an activity linked to the SEN with a transversal treatment that considers not only regulatory implications, but also infrastructure and supply implications. SENER must establish binding planning instruments and policies that promote and encourage the development of electromobility projects. intended for mass public transport and the use of clean energy and low-emission technologies in transport.

• The figure is modified Clean Energy Certificates (CELs) to be understood as an instrumentto and public policy mechanism that promotes the participation of clean energy sources in the generation of electric power in order to promote and encourage decarbonization and the energy transition in accordance with the State's energy policy and binding planning.

Social impact and surveillance

• It is seen as a A mandatory requirement for granting a permit is to have the final authorization from SENER on the Social Impact Statement of the Energy Sector, unlike what happened with the LIE and its regulations, where it was only necessary to submit the application and not have the definitive authorization.

• The requirements that the Social Impact Statement of the Energy Sector must meet are established, including the presentation of a Management Plan that includes, among others, measures for prevention, mitigation, remediation, compensation and expansion of Social Impacts, Shared Social Benefits Strategy.

• The Community Oversight function is created, empowering impacted communities with participation and certain oversight and supervision powers to monitor the Shared Benefit Plans. 

Transient

• They follow each other recognizing acquired rights under previous regulation, that is, the legacy permits and contracts obtained under the scheme of the Public Electric Energy Service Law ("LSPEE") and the LIE will remain in force and in operation insofar as it does not contradict the provisions of the LSE and the RLSE, and it is contemplated that the permits, procedures, authorizations, contracts and other instruments issued under said laws They may not be extended once their validity expires..

• Various deadlines are established for the authority to issue the requirements, provisions, and other specific regulations for the proper functioning of the electricity sector, including:

[1] On August 6, 2025, the CNE published in the DOF the “Agreement of the National Energy Commission establishing the requirements for obtaining a generation permit for interconnected self-consumption in power plants with a capacity between 0.7 and 20 megawatts (MW)."With the intention of being able to access a simplified procedure to obtain a generation permit for self-consumption with the characteristics described in the agreement itself, and within the scope of the publication of said document, on October 7, 2025, the application form for a generation permit for interconnected self-consumption in power plants with a capacity between 0.7 and 20 MW was published in the DOF.

[2] State-owned power plants shall be understood to be those developed by state-owned companies (CFE or PEMEX), as well as any agency, entity, or company of the Federal Public Administration, or state, municipal, or territorial demarcation governments of Mexico City.

[3] For electric energy storage systems, the regulation provides for the issuance (or modification, as appropriate) of new general administrative provisions that will allow for more detailed regulation of the services and modalities of participation of these systems in the SEN.