The National Energy Control Center (CENACE) launched new rules that enable urgent electricity purchases through the so-called "Reliability Acquisition Mechanisms," a scheme that will allow immediate calls for energy to be incorporated when the system cannot cover the demand, in order to face risks of blackouts and generation shortage events.
The measure raises questions for private companies regarding its economic impact and technical implications, as the new rules not only reflect an extraordinary tool for responding to potential system failures; they also send a signal to the Mexican market about the need to strengthen electrical reliability with structural solutions.
"Energy storage has ceased to be a simple technological option and has become a critical financial necessity in the face of the volatility of the Wholesale Electricity Market," said Diego Rasilla , Director of Government Affairs at Quartux, in an interview with Energía Estratégica .
“If large industries don’t protect themselves financially and technically, they will end up paying out of pocket for the prorated cost overruns of these emergency acquisitions. Implementing managed storage systems with energy intelligence software, which allow for real-time monitoring of equipment, is a strategy to mitigate technical and financial risks with the goal of achieving true sovereignty and operational certainty,” he added.
Although Rasilla values the mechanism as a positive response to avoid critical events, he argues that the real regulatory debate should focus on preventing the emergency and not just managing its consequences.
“It’s an emergency purchase, and it’s whatever is available,” he said, emphasizing that in a reliability scenario, economic merit and technological criteria will not necessarily prevail, but rather the immediate availability of energy.
For the executive, the fundamental discussion isn't about how to manage an emergency, but how to prevent it from happening in the first place. The emergence of these types of mechanisms, the sector warns, exposes a system under pressure. With an average of 100 critical alerts per year , enabling urgent purchases also appears as an implicit acknowledgment that greater flexibility is needed to meet demand.
“This measure represents a drastic change that directly impacts Qualified Users and large industrial consumers. Enabling these urgent reliability purchases introduces more expensive energy unexpectedly to prevent system collapse. For participants in the Wholesale Electricity Market (MEM), this translates into imminent volatility in Local Marginal Prices (PML) and an increase in additional charges,” the executive pointed out.
This is where energy storage becomes central. According to Rasilla, instead of waiting for critical scenarios where the operator has to scramble to find available energy, the regulator could incentivize new generation to incorporate energy storage and shift power to times of higher grid stress.
The proposal gains even more weight when considering the economic impact of blackouts. Losses for major industries are already estimated at around $150 million, while—according to Quartux—greater energy storage penetration would reduce alerts, alleviate congestion, and contain these costs.
“If we have 10 systems today, it will reduce our average of 100 alerts per year to 80 alerts,” Rasilla explained.
The discussion is significant considering that infrastructure is already in place. Quartux claims to have 120 operational projects and another 100 under construction —commercial and industrial assets that, according to the company, could provide support to the grid even before implementing extraordinary measures.
“ These mechanisms already exist today that will help the network ,” the executive said, referring to behind-the-meter systems that could respond to operator requirements.
In parallel, the debate on urgent purchases intersects with the expectation generated by the advancement of DAGs , where the industry sees an even deeper signal to unlock utility-scale storage, complementary services and new investment opportunities.
Quartux has discharged 300 MWh in eight years, and the sector itself projects between 6 and 7 GW of storage for Mexico. According to Rasilla, these figures show that the market is no longer in the exploratory phase.
“ The market is going to take off in an impressive way ,” he stated.
Even so, the executive warns that further steps are needed to accelerate that potential. Among these, he mentioned the final publication of the DAGs and the updating of operating manuals.
“ There needs to be a mechanism of economic merit for those who support the network ,” he emphasized.
In this context, Quartux seeks to deepen its expansion in the Mexican market. With over 80% market share in commercial and industrial storage, the firm aims to triple its projects and consolidate its leadership in a segment that is beginning to position Mexico as a regional benchmark. “ The main objective is to continue being the leading company in storage ,” says Rasilla.
But beyond business growth, the central message returns to the logic of the system: the emergency should not be the end goal. For the sector, urgent purchases may be a temporary solution, but the real change lies in strengthening the network before operational stress occurs.
“ It’s a very good plan, but we need to think about how to avoid having to make an emergency purchase ,” Rasilla concluded.