Since its founding, the firm developed its energy practice by advising clients on certain aspects of the sector that were originally opened to private investment, such as generation of electricity for self-supply and gas pipeline transportation, as well as energy access matters for industrial consumers. After the Mexico constitutional reform of 2013, and its implementation through new laws and regulations, the stage was set for private participation from both domestic and foreign parties in all the activities conducted in the energy value chain, which were previously reserved to the Mexican state. Since then, and as a result, multiple players have entered Mexico’s electricity and hydrocarbons markets.

CCN offers knowledge, experience, and a specialized legal team fully equipped to advise companies working on existing projects, expanding their operations, or exploring opportunities in the Mexico’s energy sector, to effectively navigate the country’s legal framework. Examples of projects and cases on which CCN has worked include the following:

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1. Represented a U.S. company until reaching ready-to-build status of a 150 MW solar photovoltaic power plant in the state of Chihuahua. CCN was involved in all the legal aspects of the project and, prominently, we helped our client achieve the execution of the interconnection contract after facing an important challenge in terms of capacity accreditation, requiring creative high-level legal and strategic actions before Mexican energy agencies.

2. Represented a U.S. company in the development of a 50 MW wind power plant in the state of Baja California Sur, involved as well in all the legal aspects of the project. Notably, CCN coordinated the legal strategy to win two appeals for review before the regulatory agency CRE against the system operator CENACE, which were among the first of their kind in Mexico, setting an important precedent to guarantee open access to Mexico’s National Transmission Grid.

3. Representing a U.S. company in the development and regulatory compliance of a 10 MW cogeneration power plant under the isolated supply scheme, for a plastics manufacturing facility in the state of Jalisco. The firm’s counsel included financing aspects, obtaining the generation permit, and the execution and implementation of multiple contracts in matters such as interconnection; natural gas supply; engineering, procurement and construction, as well as operation and maintenance.

4. Advising and representing a Spanish company in their strategies to achieve commercial operation before system operator CENACE, as well as addressing permitting issues before CRE for two utility-scale solar power plants in the states of Jalisco and San Luis Potosí.

5. Advised a U.S. company in the initial development of a clean power plant located in the United States but interconnected exclusively to the National Electric System. Specifically, with efforts before the CRE regarding the possibility of obtaining clean energy certificates for this type of projects.

6. Advising one of the most prestigious educational institutions in Mexico in the development of more than 20 distributed generation systems throughout Mexico.

7. Regulatory consultation and drafts of contracts for various projects with diverse capacities under isolated supply, local generation, and distributed generation regulatory schemes.

8. Representing the Mexican electricity qualified supply entity of a U.S. company. CCN is involved in all client’s operations, including regulatory compliance before CRE and CENACE, general transactional and corporate aspects, and drafting and negotiation of contracts with traders and clients.

9. Represented the Mexican non-supply trading entity of a U.S.-based company in a reconsideration procedure before CENACE, in which the system operator changed their original decision in the process of registration of our client as market participant. Also, represented other four non-supply traders before CRE and CENACE in their enablement to operate in the wholesale electricity market.    

10. Represented multiple industrial end users, particularly from the manufacturing industry, with their energy procurement strategies, including the negotiation of diverse energy supply contracts.

11. Represented a publicly traded U.S. company, specialized in the transportation and storage of oil products, to set up a fuel importation terminal in the state of Tamaulipas, with an estimated capacity of 235,000 barrels. CCN was involved in multiple legal aspects of the project, including the update of the terminal’s permit from LPG to diesel, the approval of the terminal’s design, drafting terms and conditions, and the authorization of the applicable tariffs and rates, all involving effective lobbying efforts before Mexican regulatory agencies.

12. Advised a Fortune 500 U.S. energy company, specialized in the production and wholesale trading of oil products, in obtaining an imports permit, accompanying quality specifications rule-making processes, and preparing the terms and conditions applicable to a fuel storage terminal in the state of Jalisco, with an estimated capacity of 900,000 barrels.

13. Representing one of the largest Mexican natural gas transportation and distribution companies in multiple regulatory and transactional matters, particularly regarding its transition to the open access regime, as well as compliance with safety and environmental protection requirements.

14. Representing a U.S. company that trades commodities on a wholesale basis in the North American and European markets and in recent years has entered the Mexico natural gas market. We have assisted our client with managing and closing a complex corporate and financing negotiation and restructuring, complying with all Mexican mandatory regulatory requirements and reports, and participating in a public bidding process winning the right to sell natural gas for balancing purposes to Mexico’s transportation system operator.