Mexican president wants state to supply 54% of power market

Lopez Obrador has launched various initiatives to strengthen the state's grip on the electricity market, and has said a constitutional reform will prioritize the government's role. He has not said when he will send the proposed reform to Congress.

Mexico will propose that state-run power utility the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) will supply 54% of the market under a planned reform of the sector, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday.

"It's not displacing the private sector, it's creating order," he told a regular morning news conference, adding that the CFE should be given preferential treatment over private firms to help it keep prices low for Mexican users. Lopez Obrador has launched various initiatives to strengthen the state's grip on the electricity market, and has said a constitutional reform will prioritize the government's role.

He has not said when he will send the proposed reform to Congress. The new lower house of the legislative body will convene in September. The law currently gives preference to dispatching the lowest-cost power onto the grid, which often favors private renewable generators.

Lopez Obrador has worked to roll back the last government's liberalization of the energy market, which sought to increase private investment in the industry and boost competition in sectors that for decades were dominated by state-run monopolies.