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

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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 5,000%, 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. CFE also implemented rotating power cuts. According to CFE, by late Monday, power was restored, although users still reported a lack of supply as of Tuesday morning.

As the Arctic front is expected to continue, new planned or unplanned power cuts are expected. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on late Wednesday ordered natural gas producers not to export product out of the state until February 21 and instead sell it to providers within Texas.

This is the second massive blackout that Mexico has faced in less than two months. On December 28, a blackout impacted more than 10 million users across the country.

Click here for a list of operational natural-gas-fired power units in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa and Sonora. See graph below.