Mexico Recovering from Massive Power Blackout, an Industrial Info Market Brief

A massive power outage on Monday affected the Mexican northern states of Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Sonora, Sinaloa and Coahuila, leaving 4.7 million users without power for several hours. According to press releases from state-owned utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and market operator CENACE, the Arctic front that struck Texas in the U.S. has affected the gas supply to Mexico in two ways: the price of natural gas has skyrocketed up to 5000%, and pipelines have frozen, affecting gas flow to Mexico. More than 5.3 gigawatts (GW) of natural gas-fired generation in Mexico was forced offline during the first hours of Monday, causing an imbalance of 6.5 GW in the north and northeast areas of Mexico. Shortly afterward, CFE used its natural gas reserves to activate strategic natural backup plants in Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon states and made available more than 11 GW of natural gas, coal and hydro generation from other regions to balance supply.