Electricity in Mexico
August 17, 2006
Today I want to explain a little about how the CFE (a government owned electric company) rate structure works.
Electricity is measured here, like in the rest of North America, in Kilowatt hours. One kilowatt is equal to the amount of energy it takes to run a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours (10 hours x 100 watts = 1000 watts or 1 kilowatt).
In Mexico the more energy you use the more per kilowatt you pay. A good way to encourage energy conservation!
The CFE in Mexico determines your electric bill using a series of 8 tables. They look at your overall consumption of kilowatts over a six-month usage period and assign you to one of the tariff tables.
If you want to all the information on your electric bill visit the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) site.
CFE bills its customers every 2 months and even if you don’t get your bill you should go to the CFE office that serves your area and pay your bill as they are very strict about turning off service if not paid within a short time frame after the bill is due! There is also a reconnect fee.
Since we don’t use electricity here to heat or cool our homes in Chapala, our electric bills are quite reasonable by North American standards. I pay approximately $35USD a month on average and we are probably in one of the upper tariff tables since our two TV’s and three computers are on most of the time 
