While the market remains focused on large utility projects, the growth of energy storage in Mexico is beginning to shift towards new demand centers.
“We are seeing very strong demand from industry. With self-consumption of up to 20 MW, the door opens mainly for data centers, plastics and automotive industries, where there can be no interruptions and everything must operate 24/7,” said Alejandra Matus, Sustainable Business Development at Siemens, a company that has been in the country for more than 130 years.
According to the executive, the interest is not only due to technological incorporation, but also to a growing need for energy reliability, driven by industries seeking behind-the-meter and microgrid schemes to ensure operational continuity, electrical resilience, and the capacity to support increasingly intensive electrification processes.
Given the projected growth of energy storage in Mexico and the increasing incorporation of battery systems in industrial and utility projects, Matus was also consulted about the challenges associated with the safety of these technologies.
“At Siemens, what we do is the electrical sizing to integrate the batteries into the grid and allow them to reach their maximum capacity without these failures occurring. There's something extremely important: the short-circuit analysis and the protection coordination analysis, which will anticipate an incident. Taking that into account, I believe the probability of a failure will decrease, or, if one does occur, these protection protocols will be activated, which greatly help prevent the risk from spreading,” he explained.
The sectors that are accelerating battery adoption in Mexico
The growth of data centers is emerging as one of the main drivers of electricity demand in Mexico over the next few years. Various industry analyses estimate that projects currently under development could require more than 1,500 MW of new energy capacity , opening up opportunities for the integration of renewable generation, storage, and self-consumption schemes to ensure uninterrupted operations.
Beyond the data center phenomenon, Siemens observes a deeper transformation linked to the electrification of industrial processes. The gradual replacement of fossil fuels with electricity in manufacturing and production sectors, such as steel and cement, is increasing energy requirements and raising interest in solutions capable of managing this new demand.
“We are seeing an industrial electrification that is inevitable. We are experiencing it ourselves in our plants: we are changing processes, using the transition from primary energy sources to electrification, and that requires increased demand,” Matus explained.
This trend is supported by international projections. According to BloombergNEF, electric vehicles already account for around 8% of new car sales in Mexico, driven by the reduction in the total cost of ownership. At the same time, imports related to this technology have increased tenfold since 2020, while the Mexican automotive industry strengthens its integration with North American supply chains—an aspect that could become even more relevant in future discussions on the USMCA.
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“They obviously require maintaining stable operations, and many times those operations will be preserved with these storage, photovoltaic and cogeneration schemes,” he said.
Utility, regulation and the challenge of preparing the grid
While industrial growth is gaining prominence, the utility sector remains one of the main drivers of energy storage in the country. According to Matus, the incorporation of batteries is progressing in tandem with the regulatory requirements established for new projects.
“The sizing has to comply with the 30% that the regulation requires, and that's coming on strong. Last year, we had 18 projects that were awarded with that percentage of batteries,” he emphasized, recalling the call for private companies last December in which almost 3 GW of renewables and 1.2 GW of battery systems were awarded to 14 companies.
The executive adds that this trend will continue to deepen with the new mixed investment schemes promoted by the Mexican government. It's worth noting that the results of the first mixed bidding process with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) were recently published, through which 7,400 MW were allocated across 37 projects developed by 31 companies, consolidating a new investment portfolio for the Mexican electricity sector.
While the main objective is to increase generation capacity, the scheme also reinforces the role that storage solutions will have in ensuring operational flexibility, renewable integration and system reliability, since projects must have at least 30% batteries.
In parallel, Mexico continues to develop the specific regulatory framework for this technology. Among the most recent provisions are new requirements for projects with storage systems, including requirements related to technical studies, risk analysis, and the mandatory submission of a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) for certain developments. The objective is to support market expansion with higher standards of safety, planning, and territorial integration.
However, for Siemens, the challenge is not limited to battery installation. The capacity of the electrical infrastructure to absorb this new demand will be crucial to consolidating the sector's growth.
“It is extremely important that if we want to implement these photovoltaic storage projects, the grid is prepared; that the infrastructure can support the capacity we want to inject,” Matus warned.
The company believes that strengthening transmission networks, substations, and microgrids will be essential to avoid congestion and ensure the reliability of the electrical system.
“I hope that next year we will also see development in transmission networks, substations, and microgrids,” he said.
The growth prospects are significant. BloombergNEF estimates investments of $63 billion in new power generation assets in Mexico by 2035 within its Economic Transition Scenario. In this context, energy storage is emerging as one of the technologies poised to play a central role, not only for integrating renewable energy, but also for supporting industrial electrification, the growth of data centers, and the productive transformation that is beginning to redefine the country's energy demand.