Mexico's 4.7 Million Power Users Scrambling Without Any Electricity, President Points Finger to U.S.

By Mary Anne R. (staff@latinpost.com) First Posted: Feb 16, 2021 11:26 PM EST

Power lines are seen as an out-of-control wildfire threatens the electrical grid in the area on June 9, 2011 in Springerville, Arizona. The Wallow Fire is threatening transmission lines that provide power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The fire, covering over 600 square miles, has forced thousands to evacuate. (Photo : Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Around 4.7 million users are scrambling in Northern Mexico for power on Monday, neighboring states in the United States are also affected. Authorities are trying to bring back the service and deliver extra fuel.

Mexican national electricity grid operator CENACE that service had been restored to 58 percent of the affected supply. Until midday, the country was seeing frozen pipelines and a squeeze on natural gas deliveries from Texas.

Bloomberg report showed that this is one of the worst electricity crises in the recent history in the United States. The disruption of the power supply was caused by cold weather that has disrupted oil and gas output.

Meanwhile, Mexico expects power to fully return on Wednesday or Thursday, according to Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador added that the blackout is a reminder that Mexico should become energy independent, adding that they must produce energy.

Suggestions that the outage could be linked to a "boycott" by private power generators was dismissed by Mexico's president, according to a Reuters report

Mexico's Power Generation

Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission's operations were left short as the cold snap in Texas froze natural gas pipelines. Private plans supply about 80 percent of power in northern Mexico, most of which are gas-fired.

Mexico uses gas to create about 60 percent of its power, while the United States uses the same source by about 40 percent, according to an Associated Press report.

The utility said that it was seeking to make up for the shortage by sourcing from hydroelectric and coal-fired power plants, as well as gas supplied by tanker ships. However, Mexico is still short by about 2,200 megawatts of power, according to the energy control office.

This caused the implementation of rolling blackouts.

This caused questions for many Mexicans, asking why their country is so dependent on U.S. supplies. It also raises questions as to the lack of backup storage of gas for more than a few hours.

Meanwhile, in January, the utility acknowledged that it had presented a falsified report on a Dec. 28 blackout.

The said blackout report was blamed on brush fire beneath the transmission lines, which affected one-fourth if Mexico's energy consumers.

Texas Winter Storm

Meanwhile, more than 3.1 million customers in Texas are without power as winter weather continues to ravaged the state.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that what they are experiencing is the winter version of Hurricane Harvey.

"And we will learn from this also, and we will come up with strategies to make sure there are available sources of power and energy so that things like this do not happen again," Abbott was quoted in an ABC News report.

The energy council of Texas has raised its highest alert from Sunday to Monday. The ERCOT has also started rolling blackouts to conserve power.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas is the state's agency that oversees Texas' power grid.

Tags Mexico, electricity, U.S.