CFE Touts Solar Investments While Cancún Residents Face Recurring Blackouts

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) is touting new investments in renewable energy for the Yucatan Peninsula, even as residents across Cancún continue to grapple with recurring blackouts and receive little response from the state-owned utility.

On Monday, CFE announced that its subsidiary CFE Calificados will take part in the La Esperanza Solar project, which began construction this month in the neighboring state of Campeche. The facility is designed to generate 420 megawatts of photovoltaic power and includes an energy storage system with 150 megawatts of capacity and a 750 megawatt-hour discharge capability.

According to the utility, the project will store energy produced during peak sunlight hours for later use, helping meet growing demand in the region — demand that residents say is already outstripping reliable service.

In Cancún, residents of Tierra Maya, Villas Otoch, Regions 101, 103, 211, 248, 250 and 252, as well as the Andalucía and Paraíso Maya subdivisions, have reported frequent outages disrupting homes and businesses. At the time of writing, CFE had not responded to questions about the failures.

Ángel Barragán, a resident of Region 103, said the power cuts are an everyday occurrence. “We lose power constantly, every day it’s the same,” he said.

Flora Gómez, from Region 101, said the electricity went out at 2 a.m., spoiling food in her refrigerator. “Food is starting to go bad,” she said.

Norma Poot said outages in Region 211 have damaged her appliances. “The power goes out very often, and the worst part is that electrical devices get damaged.”

Dolores Fernández, a homemaker, said residents are forced to pay for repairs on top of their electricity bills. “We have to pay for repairs as well as the bill for poor service; it’s not fair,” she said.

Ernesto Pérez, a hotel worker, described returning home after a long shift to find no power. “It’s horrible to come home at night after work, sweaty from being crammed on the minibus, hungry, and there’s no electricity. It’s really not right.”

Wendy Alcocer said she has visited CFE offices three times to no avail. “If you report it by phone, they don’t resolve anything, and in person it’s the same. The power goes out in Region 103 all the time; they fix it partially and it fails again.”