Mexico’s long-standing position as one of the world’s major oil producers and exporters has weakened in recent years, as oil production has declined by one third from the peak of 3.8 million barrels per day in 2004 to 2.5 mb/d in 2016. Natural gas output has also been in decline, as most gas production is associated with oil, and imports now meet almost 50% of gas demand. This decline in output is linked to a shortfall in the funds available to slow declines in mature fields or to develop new ones. Similarly, Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) had yet to acquire the technical capacity to bring new production on-line from deep-water and shale resources, and could not provide the refining capacity necessary to meet the country’s oil product needs.

The 2013 energy reform ended the state monopoly on oil and gas production, although it maintains the inalienable national ownership of hydrocarbon resources, as in many International Energy Agency (IEA) countries. A series of bidding rounds that began in 2015 is opening the oil and gas sectors to private investment and technology, leaving PEMEX to focus its resources and expertise on a narrower range of projects, either alone or in joint ventures. The IEA believes this new investment will help to slow the decline in output in shallow water areas, the traditional mainstay of Mexico’s production. It will also help to bring forward new projects in deep waters and develop new onshore resources, including tight oil. New entrants will bring dynamism to the upstream sector, and production of both oil and gas is expected to grow again in the coming years. The IEA projects oil production to rise to 3.4 mb/d by 2040, which will help restore Mexico’s position as one of the world’s top oil producers and exporters (IEA, 2016).

In the retail oil market, a combination of limited refining capacities and rising demand means that Mexico is currently a net importer of oil products. The oil products market is being liberalized ahead of the initial schedule. Since April 2016, importing oil products has been open to non-PEMEX entities. From January 2017, the retail oil market will be opened, one year earlier than initially announced. Furthermore, subsidies on oil products were phased out from 2008 to 2014.

Natural gas is the second-largest primary energy source in Mexico (35% of total primary energy supply in 2015, versus 48% for oil) and in the Department of Energy’s (SENER) projections to 2029, gas demand is set to grow fast. This demand underlines the need to focus on upstream supply, storage and transportation in policy discussions. The expansion of the gas pipeline network has lagged behind the boom in gas demand. Further expanding the system is urgent, as the system has already reached saturation on several occasions. These events also highlight the need for more storage capacity in the system. Creating an integrated national gas grid also requires close cooperation between CENAGAS (the independent system operator) and private pipeline owners. In the retail natural gas market, it is critical that the gas release programme, under which PEMEX must reduce its market share to 30% by 2020, be implemented successfully.

New investment for an estimated US $9.6 billion annually in electricity is essential to meet the rapid growth expected in electricity demand (IEA, 2016), allowing Mexico to reach its target of producing 35% of its electricity from clean sources by 2024, compared to 21% today.

The clean energy target is to be met through a quota system which includes a clean energy certificate (CEC) obligation on retail suppliers (currently, and until the Third Long term Power Auction was expected to take place during the second half of 2017, only the Comisión Federal de Electricidad) and large consumers that do not use retail suppliers. The CECs are granted to facilities taken into use after August 2014; they can be bought directly under bilateral contracts with generators, in the CEC market to be launched in 2018, and at long term auctions. As a consequence, generators of clean electricity will obtain additional revenue by supplementing their sales of electricity with the sales of CECs.

A centrepiece of the reform effort is the auction system for energy, capacity and CECs which allows investments from new players into the market on a competitive basis. The auctions offer long term contracts (15 years for energy and capacity, and 20 years for CECs) that provide a degree of stability over future cash flows for generation companies.

The Mexican clean energy auction system is a sophisticated procurement mechanism for the promotion of renewable energy. Distinctively, it seeks to capture the relative value for the system of different generation technologies by location and production profile. Projects located in higher-price areas of the country, or capable of delivering power at times of day when it is particularly needed, would receive higher revenues through the auctions and therefore attract more attention from potential investors.

Clean energy technologies are defined to include renewable energy, nuclear energy, efficient cogeneration and fossil-fired generation with carbon capture and storage. On the basis of the two first tenders, held in 2016, the auction system is providing a substantial boost to solar and wind energy, tapping Mexico’s large wind and solar resources at internationally competitive prices. It is difficult to see how new nuclear could compete under the current rules, which have yet to determine whether the Mexican NPP can legally participate in the electricity market, and which require the projects to be ready within three years of the auction.

Regarding costs, electricity prices for households and farmers up to a consumption cap are subsidized between 60% and 70% of the total cost. Artificially low electricity prices are likely to hamper government efforts to pursue efficiency, yet should be replaced by targeted social policy measures for those in need. The relevant regulators and SENER have expressed their intent to work with Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE, Federal Electricity Commission) on correcting these distortions. Bringing down technical and non-technical losses, which are currently significantly higher than elsewhere in OECD countries, would reduce the need for investment in additional generating capacity, while improvements in operational efficiency in the newly unbundled CFE could significantly reduce the retail component of the cost structure. A strengthened transmission and distribution system would further help reduce losses and is also necessary to support the projected growth in demand and in supply from variable sources — solar and wind. Efforts to attract investment to this end should be intensified.

The reform is implemented in stages and some of its important elements are yet to be introduced. These include the real-time market, the capacity market and the clean certificates market, all to be introduced in 2017–18. Most of the remaining challenges now lie in the decisiveness and speed of implementing the reform, including the necessary adjustments and improvements that are likely to be required after the first years of experience.

Climate change objectives are deeply entrenched in Mexico’s current policy making, not least in energy reform. To meet these goals, Mexico is pursuing a number of concurrent strategies: it has set ambitious clean energy goals and is in the process of designing a National Energy Efficiency Policy Strategy which, among many benefits, is likely to help bring down Mexico’s carbon intensity. In the World Energy Outlook (WEO) New Policies Scenario such measures help to cut the carbon intensity of the economy by more than half.

The strong proliferation of renewables in the power sector, where around one in two gigawatts of new capacity installed to 2040 is projected to be either wind or solar, coupled with a shift to natural gas from more polluting oil, makes a major contribution to the decrease in CO₂ emissions from the power sector.

Mexico is a non-Annex I Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2000. It is one of the most active non-Annex I parties in conducting and communicating national inventories on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, having submitted five national communications under the UNFCCC. Mexico hosted a successful Sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Cancun (2010) which lay the groundwork for a successful outcome at COP21 in Paris in December 2015. Mexico’s 2020 goal (set at COP15 in Copenhagen) of “reducing its GHG emissions up to 30% with respect to the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario by 2020” was incorporated into the UN process at Cancun. The target is conditional on the “provision of adequate financial and technological support from developed countries” (Mexico’s notification to the UNFCCC, January 2010). In September, 2016 Mexico ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Source: Energy policies beyond IEA countries.

TABLE 1. ESTIMATED AVAILABLE ENERGY SOURCES

	Fossil Fuels			Nuclear	Renewables
	Solid	Liquid	Gas	Uranium	Hydro	Other Renewable
Total amount in specific units*	1 211	34 933	46 309	3 758	60	1 211
Total amount in exajoules (EJ)	0.29	222.33	48.44	0.32	0.13	0.29

*Solid liquid: Million tonnes; Gas: Billion m³; Uranium: Metric tonnes; Hydro, Renewable: TW.

TABLE 2. ENERGY STATISTICS

	1980	1990	2000	2010	2015	2016	Compound Annual Growth Rate (%) 2000 to 2015
Energy consumption (EJ)**
Total	3.76	4.92	6.68	8.27	8.53	—	0.042
Solids	0.23	0.26	0.4	0.40	0.46	—	0.024
Liquids	2.6	3.46	4.44	4.18	4.2	—	0.199
Gases	0.93	0.97	1.64	2.85	2.32	—	0.060
Nuclear	-	-	0.09	0.06	0.12	—	0.049
Hydro	-	0.23	0.28	0.13	1.4	—	0.308
Other Renewables	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Energy production [EJ]
Total	5.89	7.77	9.467	9.318	8.261	—	–0.022
Solids	0.19	0.25	0.227	0.306	0.288	—	0.040
Liquids	4.48	6.26	6.759	6.101	5.167	—	–0.044
Gases	1.04	0.96	1.784	2.204	2.037	—	0.022
Nuclear	-	0.02	0.090	0.064	0.120	—	0.049
Hydro	-	-	0.119	0.134	0.111	—	–0.012
Other Renewables	-	-	0.488	0.51	0.54	—	0.016
Net import (Import–Export) [EJ]
Total	–1.93	–2.74	0.649	1.367	2.210

—: data not available.

Source: Subsecretaría de Planeación y Transición Energética, 2015.

The electricity reform is being carried out at full speed, yet is still under way. In 2013, the energy reform required a modification of the Mexican Constitution to liberalize the generation and retailing trams of energy production. Less than three years later, the new wholesale electricity market was launched in January 2016 and the first long term electricity auction was organized in March 2016.

In the meantime, most of the regulated electricity tariffs had already declined sharply between 2013 and 2016 in most categories. Already at the early stage of the reform, CFE accelerated investments to enable some power plants to use natural gas instead of expensive and polluting fuel oil. Within two years, from 2013 to 2015, the consumption of fuel oil dropped by almost 50% and this trend is expected to continue.

The reform is implemented in stages and some of its important elements have yet to be introduced. These include the real time market, the capacity market and the clean certificates market, all to be introduced in 2017–18. The long term success of the reform rests on the definition of detailed rules and implementation. However, some important steps have been taken, including the publication of market rules in September 2015 and the manuals and other regulations published through 2016 and 2017.

In February 2015, CFE became a state productive enterprise. With this new status, CFE gained management autonomy and corporate governance similar to a private business. It is expected that in power generation, this new status will lead to more profit-oriented investment and operation decisions, and increase efficiency. This lays the groundwork for improvement of CFE’s performance and for developing its potential in the new competitive environment.

In January 2016, SENER issued the terms to vertically and horizontally unbundle CFE and to enable it to participate in the market. First, CFE is vertically separated in its network, generation and retailing activities. This unbundling is limited to a legal separation, with the creation of a subsidiary for transmission, another for distribution, yet another for basic supply and several for generation. In addition, CFE may establish other subsidiaries and affiliates as deemed necessary. The unbundling remains partial as it is carried out at legal, not ownership, level. The only ownership unbundling concerns the system operator CENACE (National Centre of Energy Control), which became a state agency and does not belong to CFE’s holding group.

Second, CFE was also be horizontally unbundled through 2017. It will constitute a total of six generating companies, including one subsidiary managing existing independent power producer (IPP) contracts, and five companies to perform the activities of conventional power plants. CFE power plants were allocated to each generation company in November 2016 in a way that creates competitive conditions in each regional location of the power system and limits market power issues.

Each of the six generating companies has similar conditions of financial sustainability and profitability, a balanced mix of technologies and remaining technical lifetime. This horizontal separation of generation should lay the foundation for competition in the electricity market.

To ensure a competitive market, the bids in the electricity wholesale market must be based on costs, meaning that generation companies will not be allowed to bid above their short term marginal costs in this market. Each megawatt-hour generated will be paid in the clearing price that reflects the corresponding energy, losses and congestion components at every node. This cost-based market approach is designed to prevent not only the exercise of market power, but also the setting of scarcity prices during tight system conditions, and limits the participation of the demand side in electricity markets.

The evaluation and control of marginal production costs, fuel costs and power plant efficiency are performed by SENER on the basis of information provided by CENACE. In addition, the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) is designing bilateral contracts to be signed between CFE’s regulated retailers and existing CFE generation. The length of these contracts will differ for each plant to allow a smooth transition to a fully implemented market. Finally, the Market Surveillance Unit at SENER hired an independent market monitor in order to ensure the efficient and competitive operation of the market. This function was performed by SENER during 2016, but was transferred to the CRE in 2017.

The opening of the electricity sector to a competitive market will be progressive, since IPPs have kept their long term contracts with CFE, and the construction of new power plants by competitors will take time. Retail suppliers will have the ability to buy electricity on the wholesale market from 2017 and will have to compete with regulated tariffs.

Electricity System

Fig. 1: Electricity system.

Generation

Since 29 January 2016, the new wholesale electricity market was launched with six multiple subsidiaries, one nuclear business unit and other private generation companies. Installed capacity in Mexico amounted to 73 510 MW, with 71.2% from conventional power plants, and 28.8% from clean power plants in 2016. Installed capacity rose 8.1% compared to that of 2015. Clean energy installed capacity rose to 1 956 MW, a surge of 10.2%, mostly due to new wind power plants (930 MW). Conventional power plants rose to 7.2% relative to 2015. Up to 58.9% of the installed capacity was owned by CFE and the remaining 41.1% by other generators. During 2016, 319 364 GWh were generated, 3.2% more than in 2015.

Source: PRODESEN 2017–2031.

Transmission

The entire Mexican transmission and distribution network is owned by CFE. The transmission system is operated by the independent system operator CENACE. The overall electricity system is referred to as the national electricity system (SEN). The national interconnected system (SIN) covers the main transmission network of Mexico, excluding Baja California and Baja California Sur.

Mexico benefits from an already well developed transmission network. Electricity is transmitted over long distances, which can lead to high thermal losses. Reducing network losses is therefore an important objective for dispatching. High-voltage lines of 161–400 kilovolts (kV) cover 53 803 km and lines of 69 kV to 138 kV lines cover 50 331 km. Mexico City forms a central node in the high-voltage network.

Source: PRODESEN 2016–2030.

Source: Synthesis of the CFE Directive Information, December 2016 (Síntesis de información directiva de CFE)

Distribution

CFE is currently responsible for electricity distribution. There are 16 geographical divisions in charge of distribution. At the end of 2016, the Mexican transmission and distribution grids covered an overall length of around 831 087 km, providing electricity to 98.58% of the Mexican population.

The Federal Department of Energy (SENER) is the main body responsible for the coordination of the electricity sector. There is no split responsibility with states. The department is in charge of electricity market reform, including preparing laws and decrees, and implementation. It has also contributed to many of the initial decisions on market design and prepared the organization of long term auctions, responsibilities that will be transferred to the regulator or the system operator at a later stage of the reform. As part of the reform, CFE was transformed into a state productive enterprise that SENER will continue to control. SENER will also regulate its unbundling. Indeed, the mandate of CRE does not allow it to control state-owned companies.

The regulator CRE’s main tasks are to calculate network tariffs (transmission and distribution), other regulated activities (for example, operation of the basic service suppliers; the electricity system operator CENACE), as well as the final basic supply tariffs. CRE enjoys technical, operational and managerial autonomy and can dispose of its own revenues coming from a tax, not from the state budget.

The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) has temporary powers to determine retail tariffs for the basic service suppliers until CRE issues the final determination methods for these. The unbundling of CFE and the introduction of regulated network tariffs are expected to increase transparency about the costs of CFE.

The National Center for Energy Control (CENACE), the electricity system operator, will be the cornerstone of the future system organization. CENACE is an autonomous body, formerly part of CFE. It was created in 2014 and is responsible for operating the national electricity system and the wholesale electricity markets. CENACE does not own the transmission assets, which remain the property of CFE, but CENACE operates the wholesale electricity market to ensure least-cost dispatch of all power plants in adherence to economic considerations such as free competition, transparency and market efficiency. Similar to independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission operators (RTOs), it also plays a key role in the planning of the power system, including investments in transmission, to define capacity requirements, operate capacity markets and run the long term auctions.

TABLE 3. INSTALLED CAPACITY, ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION

		1980	1990	2000	2010	2015	2016	Compound Annual Growth Rate (%) 2000 to 2016
Capacity of electrical plants (GW(e))	G/N
Thermal		10.77	19.23	29.15	39.041	40.37	40.89	0.008
Nuclear		-	0.68	1.36	1.36	1.5	1.61	0.028
Hydro		6.06	7.88	9.62	11.50	12.02	12.09	0.008
Wind		-	-	0	0.085	0.086	0.086	0.003
Geothermal		0.15	0.7	0.85	0.965	0.874	0.874	–0.016
Other renewables		-	-	-	-	0.006	0.006	-
Total		16.98	28.48	40.98	52.95	54.85	55.56	0.008
Electricity production (TW.h)	G/N
Thermal		49.13	90.84	145.52	192.09	212.97	218.61	0.022
Nuclear		-	2.94	8.22	5.88	11.57	10.57	0.103
Hydro		16.91	23.54	33.08	36.74	30.12	29.14	–0.038
Wind		-	-	0.01	0.166	0.20	0.19	0.020
Geothermal		0.92	5.12	5.9	6.62	6.29	6.03	–0.015
Other renewables		-	-	-	-	0.012	0.013	-
Total		66.96	122.44	192.73	241.49	261.16	264.55	0.015
Total electricity consumption (TW.h)		60.5	107.1	182.8	207.947	212.2	218.9	0.026

TABLE 4. ENERGY RELATED RATIOS

	1980	1990	2000	2010	2015	2016
Energy consumption per capita (GJ/capita)	58	60	66.3	71.9	78.3	0.014
Electricity consumption per capita (kW.h/capita)	867.0	1162.0	1717.4	1904.0	—	—
Electricity production/Energy production (%)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Nuclear/Total electricity (%)	0.0	2.4	3.9	2.4	4.4	4.0
Ratio of external dependency (%)	–1.93	–2.74	–3.05	—	—	—

—: no data available.

Source: Synthesis of CFE directive information (Síntesis de información directiva de CFE).

The National Commission for Nuclear Energy (CNEN) was established in 1956 to pave the way for the introduction of nuclear power and nuclear applications in Mexico. CNEN encompassed all the nuclear activities in the country (exploration for uranium, nuclear research, regulation, etc.) except for the generation of electricity by nuclear means, which was the sole responsibility of CFE, and the utilization of radioisotopes. Later, CNEN was transformed into the National Institute on Nuclear Energy (INEN), which redefined the attributes but with very few changes.

In 1979, INEN was replaced by three organizations: 1) The National Institute of Nuclear Research (ININ), in charge of all the aspects related to research; 2) Mexican Uranium (URAMEX), in charge of uranium exploration and eventually uranium production; and 3) the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS), in charge of nuclear regulation and safeguards. In 1985, URAMEX was dissolved and all its functions passed to the Department of Energy.

Mexico’s interest in nuclear power dates back to the early 1960s. The first steps were taken in 1966, when a preliminary investigation of potential sites for nuclear power stations was carried out under the auspices of CFE and the National Commission for Nuclear Energy. At the end of the decade, the government concluded that nuclear power plants might play a major role. In early 1969, CFE decided to invite bids for a 600 MW(e) nuclear power plant of a proven type, and invitations to tender were sent to several manufacturers. Bids were received at the beginning of 1970, but the final decision, with up-to-date bids, was taken in the middle of 1972. In 1976, construction of the Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant (LVNPP) was initiated, comprising two reactors of 654 MW(e) net each. The first unit went into commercial operation in July 1990, and the second in April 1995.



Fig. 2: Current organizational chart.

As mentioned above, there is only one nuclear plant in operation in Mexico, with two boiling water reactors (BWRs) of 805 MW(e) net each (Table 5). For the time being, there is a projection to add three power units towards 2029–2031, if financial means are met. PRODESEN demonstrates that 54.3% of the additional capacity to be installed through 2029 shall consist of clean technologies, contributing 32.552 MW. Up to 12% could consist of nuclear generation.

TABLE 5: STATUS AND PERFORMANCE OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

Reactor Unit	Type	Net Capacity [MW(e)]	Status	Operator	Reactor Supplier	Construction Date	First Criticality Date	First Grid Date	Commercial Date	Shutdown Date	UCF for 2016
LAGUNA VERDE-1	BWR	777	Operational	CFE	GE	1976-10-01	1988-11-08	1989-04-13	1990-07-29		78.4
LAGUNA VERDE-2	BWR	775	Operational	CFE	GE	1977-06-01	1994-09-06	1994-11-11	1995-04-10		80.6

Data source: IAEA - Power Reactor Information System (PRIS).

Note: Table 7 is completely generated from PRIS data to reflect the latest available information and may be more up to date than the text of the report.

On 26 December 2014, Laguna Verde Unit 2 received permission from the Mexican Regulatory Authority to operate at the extended power uprate (EPU) level (120% of the original licensed thermal power); it operated during 2015 at this new power level (2 317 MW(th), 810 MW(e)). The new operation licence at this power level has not yet been issued by the energy Department.

During 2016, the 17th refuelling outage of Laguna Verde Unit 1 was extended from an original 65 days to 155 days because of a diesel generator failure. During this outage, the steam dryer was reinforced as part of the extender power uprate (120% of the original licensed thermal power) approval. In March 2016, this unit received permission from the Mexican Regulatory Authority to operate at the new power uprate level. The current operating cycle (Cycle 18) started at this new power level (2 317 MW(th), 810 MW(e)).

Laguna Verde Unit 2 performed its 14th refuelling outage as planned in the spring of 2016 and started its second operating cycle (Cycle 15) at the EPU level (2 317 MW(th)). For both Laguna Verde units, the new EPU licence has not been issued by the energy Department.

Licence Renewal

In 2015, an application for a licence renewal of Laguna Verde Unit 1 was submitted to the Mexican Regulatory Authority. This unit licence expires in July 2020.

Spent Fuel Storage

In 2015, construction was started on an independent spent fuel dry storage installation (ISFSI) at the Laguna Verde site. In 2016, the construction of the installation was completed, and the first removal of spent fuel from the spent fuel pools was expected in 2017.

Post-Fukushima Lessons

The main Post-Fukushima lessons related to mitigation strategies for events beyond the design bases, were required by the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, as follows:

• EA-12-049 "FLEX Mitigation Strategies";

• EA-12-051 "Diversification of the Instrumentation of the Spent Fuel Pool";

• EA-13-109 "Rigid Reliable Venting of Primary Containment";

Actions to improve the Central’s response to an extended station blackout (SBO) (Section 4.1.2.3 of the Resistance Test Report).

The feasibility of extending the minimum time required (“coping time”) to deal with an SBO, with equipment installed in place, from four to eight hours, was evaluated. The Central (1-OA-853 R-13 and 2-OA-853 R-11) procedures reflect the actions required to cope with an eight hour SBO, specifying direct current loads that must be disconnected to lengthen the battery life up to eight hours.

Within the strategies for events beyond the design bases, the implementation of mitigation strategies 10CFR54 (hh) (2) is in process according to the guidelines of the NEI-06-12 Rev. 2 report, as well as of the FLEX strategies, which are implemented in accordance with the requirements of NEI-12-06 Rev. 1. These strategies are being implemented; in 2016, the mock-ups were initiated to determine deployment times.

The strategies that are in process of implementation are the following:

• Diversification of alternative replenishment alternatives to ACG (internal and external), having the following alternative sources of water: 1-DW-TK-002A, 002B and 002C insulation washing tanks, 1-FP-TK-001A and 001B of fire protection and sea water supply.

• Manual operation of the reactor core isolation cooling (RCIC) system.

• Supply of DC power to de-pressurize the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and injection with a portable pump. The injection will be carried out with alternative sources of water supply.

• Manual opening of the vent valves. Containment vent valves (DW) can be manually operated from level 10.15 of the reactor building, through pneumatic force provided by nitrogen bottles and portable generators.

• Injection of water to primary containment; the injection will be possible with the alternative water supply.

Core Cooling Strategies

The strategies that are being implemented to inject water into the core, considering the use of portable pumping equipment and flexible hoses, as well as the use of Storz-type quick-connect fittings coupled to the lines of systems that have been considered to be part of FLEX strategies, include the following:

Fig. 3. Replacement of the RPV from the insulator wash tanks to the LPCS or HPCS lines through the ILRT pipeline.

HPCS — high pressure core spray system; ILRT — ; LPCS — low pressure core spray system; RPV — .

Fig. 4. Replacement to RPV from insulator wash tanks using RHR loop "A".

RHR — Residual Heat Removal System; RPV — .

Fig. 5. Replacement to the RPV from FP tanks to LPCS or HPCS lines, through the ILRT pipeline.

FP — ;HPCS — high pressure core spray system; ILRT — ; LPCS — low pressure core spray system; RPV — .

Not applicable

Pre-feasibility studies and analyses are being conducted on the possibility of increasing the nuclear fleet. PRODESEN demonstrates that three 1 360 MW nuclear power units could be added in 2029, 2030 and 2031, respectively.

The Energy Sector Programme 2013–2018 proposes the development of electrical infrastructure, increasing nuclear power participation and including measures to strengthen the development of human resources, to strengthen national industrial and technological capabilities existing in the nuclear field and to strengthen the regulatory body (SENER, 2013).

The plant has entered into agreements with the local authorities, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy and other pertinent organizations for cooperation in case of a nuclear or radiological emergency.

Currently, there are studies to expand the installed capacity of the Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant. Among the presentations of different suppliers of nuclear power technology, General Electric—Hitachi promoted different types of reactors for Laguna Verde such as advanced boiling water reactors (ABWRs) and economic simplified boiling water reactors (ESBWRs).

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

ININ

ININ carries out actions for nuclear scientific and technological development, for the promotion, transfer, adaptation, and assimilation of nuclear technologies. It also carries out research projects in response to energy sector needs and provides technical assistance to nuclear facilities. It develops disciplines from which the country could benefit in other topics for national development as well.

The institute has qualified personnel, nationally and internationally recognized experts in several sciences and engineering areas, providing the ability to support multidisciplinary projects. Within the field of peaceful uses for nuclear energy, ININ has defined 11 research and development topics.

INEEL

The National Institute of Electricity and Clean Energies (INEEL) is committed to meeting energy needs through innovation, efficiency and continuous improvement of their processes, within the legal, regulatory and regulatory framework applicable to the management of quality, sustainable development, labor equality and non-discrimination, environmental management, safety and health at work.

Among its objectives are:

—To carry out and promote scientific research, experimental development and technological research, in order to solve the scientific and technological problems related to the improvement of the electrical industry;

—To contribute to diffusion and implantation, within the electrical industry, of those technologies that best adapt to the economic development of the country;

—To maintain effective relations with similar institutions in other countries and with academic and technological research institutes in the country;

—To provide courses of specialization and update knowledge in science, technology and industrial administration in the area of the electrical industry;

—To provide advice to CFE, the electrical manufacturing industry and engineering and consulting services related to the electrical industry.

—To propose to the SENER and CFE applied and technological research programmes, and the corresponding plans of operation, investment and financing in the short, medium and long term.

—To patent and license developed technologies and the results of the research obtained (and that are appropriate).

None.

Mexico is a member of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Nuclear Energy Agency/OECD, and an observer in the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC).