On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Mexico's Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, along with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Norman Bay, Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) Chairman Guillermo Ignacio Garcia Alcocer, and National Center for Energy Control (CENACE) Director Eduardo Meraz Ateca, signed a non-binding foundational document to support ongoing efforts by both countries to ensure the reliability of the interconnected American and Mexican electricity grids. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson and President and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Gerry Cauley witnessed the signing.
“The United States and Mexico have a long-standing energy partnership that is being strengthened further as Mexico advances its impressive energy sector reform," said U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Electricity system integration will help both countries achieve economic, energy, and environmental goals, and these agreed-upon principles will help assure reliability and resilience.”
The principles align with one of the recommendations in the recently released Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) 1.2: “Transforming the Nation's Electricity Sector.” Both QER 1.1 and 1.2 include chapters on North American energy integration. The U.S. and Canadian electricity systems are well integrated to mutual benefit, with NERC playing a key role in maintaining reliability.
The U.S. and Mexican electricity systems are moving towards a similar level of integration for mutual economic benefit. These developments come at a time of change in the electricity sector, marked by increased convergence of electricity and information technology infrastructures which provide opportunities for significant value creation but also require technological, policy, and regulatory solutions to address reliability and security challenges.
These issues are addressed comprehensively in QER 1.2, which offers six recommendations for enhanced North American electricity integration.
