Mexico updates rules for energy storage

Mexico’s energy regulator has opened a consultation to rewrite distributed-generation rules so batteries are explicitly part of small grid-connected projects. (pv-magazine.com) The draft was published by the Energy Regulatory Commission, known as CRE, on Mexico’s regulatory-improvement platform and reported on April 13 and April 14, 2026. It covers rooftop solar and hybrid systems that pair solar panels with storage. (pv-magazine-mexico.com; pv-magazine.com) A battery in this context works like a reservoir on a building site: it stores electricity when production is high and releases it later. CRE’s proposal adds that reservoir to the legal definition of distributed generation, where earlier rules were built mainly around generation that flowed straight to the grid or the customer in real time. (pv-magazine-mexico.com; gob.mx) The proposal keeps the general distributed-generation threshold at up to 500 kilowatts, but it spells out more clearly how capacity is measured in direct current or alternating current and how hybrid systems with batteries are counted. It also adds more detailed interconnection studies and grid-impact requirements. (pv-magazine-mexico.com) CRE also proposes changes to metering and settlement rules so systems with storage can handle surplus energy under updated net-metering and billing criteria. The previous framework was designed chiefly for instant generation, not for projects that can shift electricity from one hour to another. (pv-magazine-mexico.com) Mexico’s distributed-generation regime has long rested on rules for plants below 0.5 megawatts, or 500 kilowatts, under the framework CRE published in 2017. CRE’s public guidance still points developers to that 2017 structure and the interconnection manual for projects under that size. (gob.mx; dof.gob.mx) The storage piece has been moving separately. Mexico published broader electricity-storage regulations in the Official Journal on March 7, 2025, creating five storage modalities and setting permit and interconnection rules for systems tied to power plants, load centers and exempt generators. (mexicoreport.com) That left a gap for smaller on-site projects, especially at factories, warehouses and commercial buildings that want solar plus batteries under the distributed-generation route. The new consultation tries to line up that small-project rulebook with the storage regime Mexico already put in place in 2025. (mexicoreport.com; pv-magazine.com) The practical effect is less about raising the headline size cap than about telling developers, customers and utilities which number counts, which studies are required and how exported power is measured when a battery is involved. Mexico’s grid-connection portal for distributed generation is already run by CFE Distribución, so those details determine how projects move from design to approval. (pv-magazine-mexico.com; app.cfe.mx) For now, the change is still a consultation, not a final rule. But it gives Mexico’s small-project market a clearer map for adding batteries to solar systems that already sit inside the country’s 500-kilowatt distributed-generation lane. (pv-magazine.com)