From Energy Island to Smart Grid: the CFE and Yucatán’s Future
I call the Yucatán Peninsula an energy island because it is dependent on a single 400 kV CFE transmission line linking it to the rest of Mexico.
With daily demand exceeding 2,400 MW and only 1,800 MW of installed generation, even small disturbances can cause widespread blackouts. During the heat waves of recent summers, CFE transformers overloaded, substations tripped, and Mérida alone recorded more than 50 outages in one month. Each interruption rippled through the local economy, disrupting tourism, commerce, and manufacturing.
“Each hour without electricity carries a tangible economic cost,” notes Professor Luis Araujo Andrade of UADY. “Without modernization, regional growth remains constrained by uncertainty.”
Yucatecans have responded by turning to the sun. Thousands of homes, hotels, and small businesses have installed rooftop solar systems, making the peninsula one of Mexico’s leaders in distributed generation. This is a success story—but it also exposes the grid’s fragility. A system designed for one-way power flow now faces bidirectional surges: voltage spikes at midday and sharp drops at dusk. Transformers and feeders strain under the load, while the evening “duck curve” forces reliance on imported power just as demand peaks.
The missing piece of the puzzle is energy storage. Solar power without storage is like rainfall without reservoirs—abundant yet fleeting. Without batteries to absorb excess midday generation and release it during evening peaks, Yucatán’s growing solar capacity risks worsening the very instability it was meant to solve.
A Smarter Solution: Incentivized Storage Under CFE Coordination
Building another 400 kV transmission line would cost billions of pesos and take nearly a decade. A faster, more flexible option would be for the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) to incentivize battery storage at the household and commercial level while retaining operational control and maintenance responsibility. Under this model, CFE or a public-private partner would install batteries (for example, 10 kWh units) alongside existing rooftop solar systems.
Users would receive bill credits or reduced tariffs in exchange for allowing CFE to manage the battery’s charge and discharge cycles. Through smart software, thousands of small batteries would function as a single coordinated network—a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) capable of stabilizing voltage, balancing load, and reducing outages. Such a system would turn Yucatán’s energy island into a distributed archipelago of resilience.
Lessons from Abroad
Programs like this are already working in Australia, California, and Japan, where VPPs have reduced peak-hour demand by more than 20%, deferred costly grid expansions by up to 40%, and provided backup power during system failures. Yucatán’s geography and climate make it a natural candidate for Latin America’s first large-scale VPP—a model that blends public control with private participation.
A distributed battery initiative would create local jobs in installation, maintenance, and monitoring; protect the tourism sector from revenue-draining outages; and reduce dependence on imported natural gas and distant generation. In short, it would strengthen both the economy and public confidence in the region’s energy future.
Yucatán’s transition from energy island to smart grid does not require a decade of waiting. It requires coordinated action—investment in digital controls, partnerships with universities and private firms, and a willingness by CFE to view distributed energy not as a threat but as a tool. Every home battery linked to the network could become a stabilizing cell in a living, intelligent grid—one that stores sunlight by day and returns it to the people by night.
The future of Yucatán’s electricity system will not be written solely in new power plants or transmission towers, but in how intelligently we use the energy we already have. With foresight and coordination, Yucatán can lead Mexico in proving that distributed energy, when managed wisely, is not the problem—it’s the solution.
David W. Keelan is a writer and community advocate based in Yucatán, Mexico. He is a member of the Mérida English Rotary Club and author of “Isla Energética Bajo Presión: La Red Eléctrica de Yucatán al Límite.” His work explores the intersection of energy policy, economic resilience, and community development across the Yucatán Peninsula. A Pennsylvania native who also lived in Maryland. David retired in 2020 and is living his best life in Mérida, Yucatán.
