Mexican President Says Power Outages Caused By 'Exceptional' Heat Wave

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday said that the recent power outages in the country were caused due to an "exceptional" heat wave, adding that the government is working with private companies to address the issue.

"This was something exceptional that was not expected," Obrador said, according to Reuters. "But we're going to be very attentive to this special situation we're dealing with."

Out of 32 states in Mexico, 20 experienced power outages Tuesday, as per the data received from grid operator CENACE. On Wednesday, the net national power demand was around 44.9 gigawatts (GW), slightly lower than the net generation of 45.0 GW.

A major Mexican employers lobby COPARMEX has asked private companies to invest, especially in renewable energy, to improve the grid's reliability.

"The participation of private investment would provide stability in the face of the various contingencies and challenges of the national electricity system," COPARMEX said. "The generation of clean energy and the creation of storage infrastructure could avoid future electricity emergencies."

In the last six years, Obrador has been focusing more on the dispatch of power from state-owned electricity company Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) and limiting the privately-owned electricity generators' expansion.

Due to this, many renewable energy projects have been impacted. The country was already dealing with severe water issues, including in the upscale areas of Mexico City, when the outage occurred Tuesday.

Cutzamala system, responsible for providing drinking water for Mexico City and the surrounding state of Mexico, dropped its water storage levels by 31% Tuesday. As per the national water authority, CONAGUA, this water level is critically low.

Ahead of the upcoming elections in Mexico, the top presidential candidates held a second round of debate last week, where they discussed the social initiatives of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador alongside promising a clean energy transition.