CFE record electricity demand 54,530 megawatts, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Mexico’s state-owned utility, Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), managed the largest stress test in the history of the National Electrical System on August 20 without collapses. The utility responded with reserve margin and stability to a record demand of 54,530 megawatts (MW).
According to the report, the demand is equivalent to switching on 54 million homes at the same time and represented an annual increase of 5 percent in energy and 3 percent in peak consumption. The increase was cushioned by the entry of new power plants and hydroelectric plants.
CFE Director General Emilia Calleja Alor said, “We have direction, we have projects, and we have the capacity and determination to carry them forward.” She said the operating safeguards that absorbed the record rest on installed capacity of 64,101 MW, of which 47,982 MW is the utility’s own infrastructure and 16,119 MW comes from external producers.
Between 2025 and 2026, six combined-cycle plants entered commercial operation, adding 3,204 MW with an investment of 52,424 million pesos. Separately, the rehabilitation of hydroelectric plants added 53 effective MW and extended their useful life by 50 years.
On the grid side, the Federal Electricity Commission completed 35 transmission projects worth 15,119 million pesos and has 83 projects under way with a budget of 89,104 million pesos.
