Mexico

How the Mexican market works

One state utility, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), sells electricity to households and runs the distribution network. The rules were rewritten in 2024 and 2025: the Ley del Sector Eléctrico (LSE) was promulgated on 18 March 2025, and its Reglamento was published on undefined (Cuatrecasas, March 2026). The old regulator, the Comisión Reguladora de Energía (CRE), has been replaced by the CNE (Expansión, December 2025).

That matters for a battery buyer because the detailed rules for small solar and storage are issued by the CNE through administrative provisions (disposiciones administrativas de carácter general, DACG). A trade article from December 2025 reported that these had not yet been issued for rooftop solar, and that the uncertainty slowed the market in 2025 (Expansión, December 2025). As of 5 November 2026 they still had not been issued as final rules: the solar association ANES said it expected new provisions for projects under 700 kW, storage and collective generation, and that companies keep working under the current rules meanwhile (Energía Estratégica). A draft with storage was reported in April 2026, but we found no final text (ESS News, April 2026).

Mexico also has very hot summers that strain the grid (see the outage section). Our guides on how a home battery saves money and what size home battery you need explain the arithmetic that applies in any country. We found no official Mexican data on how many homes have a battery, so we state no figure.

CFE bills and the DAC tariff

Domestic customers pay a subsidised tariff that depends on the climate zone (tariffs 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F). Fox Sports México reports subsidised prices of about 1 to 3 pesos per kWh. If a household's average monthly use over the last 12 months passes the limit for its zone, CFE moves it to DAC and the subsidy ends. The limits quoted are 250 kWh a month for tariff 1, 300 kWh for 1A, 400 kWh for 1B, 850 kWh for 1C and up to 2,500 kWh for 1F (Diario de Yucatán, May 2026; Fox Sports México, May 2026).

On DAC, the same reports put the energy price at between 6 and 7 pesos per kWh, depending on the region, with a fixed charge of 145.24 pesos (Diario de Yucatán). Expansión reports that the central-region DAC price rose from 6.65 pesos to 6.75 pesos per kWh between January to June 2026 (Expansión). Staying under the limit for 12 months and asking CFE for a change is how households leave DAC; it is not automatic (Diario de Yucatán).

These are press figures. CFE's own tariff pages could not be opened by our tools, so check the tariff and the limit on your latest bill. A household on a subsidised tariff pays so little per kWh that solar and a battery rarely pay back on price alone. We state no payback figure, because it depends on your tariff, your use and your quote.

We found no residential time-of-use price in the sources we could read that would let a battery earn by shifting power between cheap and dear hours. Ask CFE or your installer whether your tariff has one before you count on that saving.

Rooftop solar and net metering (medición neta)

CFE has offered three ways to be paid for solar power sent back to the grid. Official statistics for the second half of 2023, when the limit was still 0.5 MW, list net metering (medición neta) at 3,046.88 MW and 375,147 contracts, net billing (facturación neta) at 64.05 MW and 5,893 contracts, and total sale (venta total) at 3.17 MW and 489 contracts (gob.mx: distributed generation statistics, second half of 2023). Net metering is by far the most common.

The statistics name the 2017 CRE resolution RES/142/2017 as the legal basis for that period. The 2025 law changes the framework: Article 27 says distributed generation sells energy through CFE's basic-service supplier, that the CNE must issue the contract models and the methods for setting the payment, and that the payment may not contain unauthorised subsidies (Ley del Sector Eléctrico, Article 27). A CNE interconnection contract model published in the DOF on 17 March 2026 exempts plants under 0.7 MW: they do not sign it and follow the distributed-generation model instead (Energía Estratégica, March 2026). We found no final new distributed-generation model, and a trade report in August 2025 said the old one-to-one credit would be replaced by a regulated surplus price whose method and tariffs were not yet published (Energía Estratégica, August 2025). So net metering continues under the current rules, but we could not confirm what it will look like once the new rules arrive. One trade article says the 2026 secondary rules redefine net metering but gives no detail (Mexico Business News).

An installer blog describes net metering as credits that carry forward for 12 months and then expire without payment, and net billing and total sale as lower-value options (Reslink, May 2026). That is a commercial source and it attributes the rules to the CRE, so treat it as background and ask CFE for the contract text before you size a system.

The practical point is the same as in any market with a low export value: a battery pays when it raises how much of your own solar you use, and it pays most when the alternative is the DAC price. Get the compensation terms in writing from CFE before you buy.

The 0.7 MW rule and the CFE interconnection

Under Article 25 of the 2025 law, distributed generation is a plant of less than 0.7 MW connected to a distribution circuit, and its energy can be used by the owner or sold (Ley del Sector Eléctrico, Article 25). The limit was 0.5 MW before. The Reglamento says plants below it are exempt from the generation permit, and plants at or above it need one (Holland & Knight, October 2025; Reglamento de la LSE). A house is far below the limit.

For rooftop systems the owner arranges the interconnection with CFE and does not need a generation permit from the CNE (Expansión, June 2026). Expansión also reports that the project still needs a CFE interconnection request and registration with the regulator (Expansión, December 2025). The Reglamento says the capacity of a distributed-generation plant is its installed capacity (Article 47).

Applications are growing: about 112,000 in the year to mid-2026, 630,207 in total (Expansión, June 2026). An industry columnist reports that CFE offices sometimes ask for documents the rules do not require, or demand grid reinforcement, and that the practice differs by office; the article is undated, so treat it as a warning, not a current fact (Energía a Debate: the obstacles). Ask your installer to handle the application, and to name the CFE office and the reference number.

The December 2025 rules for self-consumption (autoconsumo) apply only to plants of 0.7 MW or more, so they do not concern a home (Pérez-Llorca note on the DACG).

Batteries and the new storage rules

Storage is now regulated as its own activity. The CNE published new provisions for integrating energy storage systems (sistemas de almacenamiento de energía eléctrica, SAEE) on 16 April 2026, in force on 17 April 2026, replacing Acuerdo A/113/2024 (DOF, 7 March 2025). For storage tied to a self-consumption user or a load centre, the provisions say no separate storage permit is needed in set conditions, for example when the storage power is no larger than the demand of the consumption centre. A metering system at the connection point is required (Greenberg Traurig summary, May 2026).

The same summary describes storage behind a load centre (SAEE-CC) as needing no storage permit, serving only that site, and not allowed to inject into the grid. Storage attached to a self-consumption user can inject and sell surplus after interconnection studies (SAEE-Autoconsumo). It does not address households or distributed generation under 0.7 MW specifically, and we could not read the DOF text. We could not confirm whether the CFE interconnection application for a house must list the battery, or whether the compensation rules treat stored power differently. These are the questions to put to your installer and to CFE in writing.

A law-firm review (March 2026) lists a category for storage attached to a small plant, normally in distributed generation, and notes that the grid operator CENACE can ask for storage as backup in renewable projects (Cuatrecasas). It pre-dates the April 2026 rules, so treat it as background. A commentator writing earlier also described rules for batteries in distributed generation as still missing (Energía a Debate).

Mexico Business News (2026) reports that storage has not grown as fast as solar and that planning documents call for 8 to 9 GW of storage by the mid-2030s, a national target and not a household one (Mexico Business News). Our guides on how to choose a home battery and installing a battery outside list what to ask an installer.

IVA and import duties (aranceles)

The general IVA (value-added tax) rate is 16% (Ley del IVA, Article 1). In the part of Article 2-A that we could read, the 0% rate covers listed goods and none of them is a solar panel or a battery, so we assume 16% applies. We did not read the whole law, so ask your installer to show the IVA line by line on the quote.

Import duties changed on 1 January 2026. A decree published in the DOF on 29 December 2025 raised duties on 1,463 tariff lines, with increases up to 50%, for goods from countries without a trade agreement with Mexico, a group that includes China (JD Supra summary; EY tax flash; TIGIE 2026 summary).

We could not confirm whether the tariff lines for lithium batteries, inverters, solar modules or portable power stations are among the 1,463. A law-firm summary lists the chapters affected as 39, 50 to 63, 72, 73 and 87 (plastics, textiles, footwear, steel and vehicle parts), and chapter 85, which holds batteries and inverters, is not named there (Galicia Abogados summary); press lists name clothing, footwear, steel, auto parts, toys and a few appliances, not batteries or solar. That points away from batteries but is not proof, so a customs broker should read the decree annex. Until you know, treat prices from importers as likely to move, and compare quotes in writing with the date.

Income tax and incentives

The Income Tax Law lets taxpayers deduct 100% of the cost of new equipment that generates power from renewable sources in the year it is invested, if it stays in operation for at least five years (Article 34, section XIII of the Income Tax Law) (IDC Online on the deduction; Mexico Business News, December 2025). The deduction is for businesses that deduct investments, not for a household paying personal income tax. We found no personal tax deduction for home solar or batteries.

The sources we read do not say whether a battery counts as renewable generation equipment, and the second source is an opinion column by a solar company, not an official text. If you have a business and want to use the deduction, ask an accountant before you buy.

We found no federal grant or rebate for a household battery, and we did not find a state or CFE scheme for one. We also found no official programme that finances rooftop batteries for homes, and we state no price, because installed costs vary too much by region and system.

Standards, certification and installers

Installations in Mexico follow NOM-001-SEDE, the standard for electrical installations (instalaciones eléctricas de utilización). A draft of the 2018 edition, notified to the WTO in August 2018, contains Article 690 on solar photovoltaic systems and Article 706 on energy storage systems (WTO notification of PROY-NOM-001-SEDE-2018). We could not confirm which edition is in force today. An older commentary says the 2012 edition still applied and that there were no standards for inverters or batteries (Energía a Debate). Ask your installer which edition they work to, and for the verification report where one is needed.

Verification of installations is done by approved verification units (Unidades de Verificación de Instalaciones Eléctricas, UVIE) under the conformity-assessment procedure for NOM-001-SEDE-2012 (DOF: conformity-assessment procedure). We could not confirm whether a UVIE report is required for a home battery.

Product rules are a gap in what we could verify. NOM-001-SCFI-2018 covers electronic products for domestic use between 24 V and 1,000 V AC, and names chargers, but does not mention batteries, so we do not know which Mexican standard applies to a lithium battery or a power station (NOM-001-SCFI-2018 summary). Ask the seller for the test reports and the certificates the product holds.

There is a voluntary competency standard for installers, EC0586, "Installation of photovoltaic systems in homes, business and industry", published in the DOF on 11 June 2015 (EC0586). The document describes itself as a reference for evaluation and certification; it does not say it is mandatory. Ask whether the installer's staff hold it, and ask for two addresses where they have installed a battery.

Heat, outages and backup

Outages are the other reason Mexicans consider a battery. On 7 May 2024, CENACE declared an operating emergency during a heat wave that made it the hottest day on record, and El Financiero reported power cuts at various points of the country that night (El Financiero, 7 May 2024). We did not research outages by region, so we state no outage rate for your area.

A battery does not run a house indefinitely. Capacity, the circuits wired for backup and the loads decide the runtime, and air conditioning is the load that empties a small battery first. Our guides on how long a battery lasts in a power cut and how whole-home backup works show the calculation.

A grid-tied solar system normally switches off when the grid fails, for safety. Only a system with backup-capable hardware keeps supplying the house. We could not confirm how Mexican rules treat that mode, so ask your installer whether the system is designed to work during an outage and how it is approved with CFE.

What to ask before you sign a quote

Because several rules are still settling, the quote and the contract matter more than usual. Ask for the following in writing: the CFE interconnection application number and the contract scheme (net metering, net billing or total sale); whether the battery is listed in the application; the tariff you are on and the DAC limit for your zone; the IVA and any import-related charge shown separately; and the standard the installation is built to.

Ask what happens if the rules change after installation, for example if CFE or the CNE issues new compensation models. A fair installer will say what is fixed in the contract and what is not. Ask for the battery's datasheet, its warranty terms and who services it in Mexico, and for the runtime estimate for your own loads.

Then test the numbers yourself. A battery can only shift power you actually use, so your evening use and your tariff set the ceiling, as our worked example in how a home battery saves money shows. If the quote's payback depends on a price or a rule we could not confirm on this page, ask the installer to show the source.

Portable power stations versus a home battery

Many Mexicans search for a portable power station (estación de energía portátil) before they consider a home battery, and for good reason: it needs no installer and no CFE application. A portable power station is a battery with sockets that you plug appliances into. It can run a fan, a fridge, a modem or a few lights during a cut. It is not wired to your electrical panel, it does not switch on automatically, and it cannot lower a DAC bill by itself.

A wired home battery is a different product. It connects to the panel through an inverter, should be installed by a qualified electrician, is normally part of a solar system registered with CFE, and can power circuits automatically. The rules on this page for interconnection, net metering and storage apply to wired systems. We found no rule that applies to a portable unit you charge from a socket, and no tariff that rewards one.

Safety needs the same attention. We found no Profeco test or recall of portable power stations while writing this page, and could not confirm which Mexican standard covers them (see the standards section). Charge the unit away from beds and exits, do not leave it charging unattended, and keep it out of direct sun and a hot car. Our guide on portable power stations and plug-in batteries compares the two types in detail, and we do not recommend brands on this page.

Choose a power station if you want short, flexible backup for a few devices and can plug them in. Choose a wired battery if you want circuit or whole-home backup, you already have or plan solar, and you are willing to deal with CFE.

Outside Mexico

Rules, tariffs and incentives for home batteries differ from country to country, so do not apply the figures on this page to a home elsewhere. We are adding guides for other countries to this section.

Common questions about Mexico

Related guides

Compare how other markets handle the same questions, or size your own system first:

• Home batteries in United States
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• Home battery brand guides
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