Across Mexico, homes and businesses have been plunged into darkness with alarming frequency in recent weeks.
A wave of blackouts, power outtages and voltage fluctuations has affected at least 20 states, leaving residents without power for hours during some of the hottest months of the year. The outages have disrupted daily life, damaged appliances, spoiled food, and forced businesses to halt operations, resulting in millions of pesos in losses.
While the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has insisted there is no national crisis, the evidence on the ground tells a different story: Mexico’s electrical system is struggling to keep up, and the root of the problem lies not in a lack of power plants but in a transmission and distribution network that has been neglected for decades.
Widespread Power Outages Across Multiple Regions
The blackouts have been felt in nearly every corner of the country. One of the regions hardest hit includes the states of Morelos, Hidalgo, Puebla, Veracruz, Querétaro, and San Luis Potosí. The northern states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and Coahuila have also experienced significant disruptions.
In Monterrey, authorities have attributed the outages to the advanced age of transformers. In Matamoros, residents have taken to the streets to protest the widespread blackouts, and the mayor has publicly demanded that CFE provide a solution. Other affected cities include Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo.
The situation is equally dire in the southeast. In Tabasco, where temperatures regularly exceed 35 degrees Celsius, users have staged demonstrations over power suspensions. An incident at the Dos Bocas Refinery, which experienced a fire caused by a power outage, underscored the cascading effects of these failures.
The Yucatán Peninsula, including Quintana Roo, Campeche, and Yucatán itself, has also seen widespread failures. The director of Yucatán’s Energy Agency has pointed to disorderly urban growth and excessive demand as key pressures on the network. In Baja California Sur, residents of La Paz and Los Cabos have faced daily interruptions, with experts linking the outages directly to a deficient distribution network that has not received sufficient maintenance.
Power a Problem of Distribution, Not Just Generation
CFE has publicly rejected the idea that Mexico is facing a generalized electrical crisis. In a statement, the company argued that the interruptions are localized, with causes, scopes, and durations that vary by region. According to CFE, the primary triggers include extreme weather events such as storms, lightning, high winds, and high temperatures; contact with animals or vegetation; damage caused by third parties; and equipment in need of maintenance or replacement.
But this official explanation does not fully account for the persistence of the problem. Experts and analysts have pointed to a more fundamental issue: while CFE has focused on expanding generation capacity, it has neglected the infrastructure that actually delivers electricity to consumers.
The Center for Renewable Energies and Environmental Quality, known as CERCA, has been particularly vocal on this point. According to the organization, the blackouts are not occurring because demand exceeds production, as was the case in previous years. Instead, the problem is that the distribution network, which includes substations and transformers, has not received adequate maintenance to operate efficiently. “Despite the investment in generation, we have the same problem: a lack of infrastructure throughout the electrical network,” the organization stated.
Aging Infrastructure and Decades of Neglect
The condition of Mexico’s electrical grid is the result of years of underinvestment. In 2025, CFE’s physical investment fell by 24% in real terms compared to the previous year. The decline in investment in power plants during the previous administration has also been cited as a factor contributing to current failures.
But the more pressing issue is the age of the distribution equipment. Much of the network relies on transformers and other components that are decades old and have been subjected to repeated repairs rather than full replacement. In some cases, the state of the infrastructure has become so degraded that maintenance crews have resorted to makeshift solutions, with modules held together by little more than tape to keep the system operational.
This patchwork approach has left the grid vulnerable to even minor disruptions. When a transformer fails, it can knock out power to an entire neighborhood or city block, and because the equipment is often obsolete, replacements are not readily available. The result is a cycle of breakdowns and temporary fixes that do nothing to address the system’s underlying deterioration.
Economic and Social Consequences
The impact of power outages extends far beyond inconvenience. For households, the loss of power means spoiled food, damaged electronics, and an inability to cope with extreme heat. For small businesses, the interruptions can be catastrophic. Restaurants lose inventory, shops cannot process payments, and manufacturers are forced to halt production lines. In a country where many workers are paid by the day, a power outage can mean a lost day of wages.
The problem has also begun to affect larger economic ambitions. Analysts have warned that the energy crisis is slowing investment in nearshoring and the expansion of data centers, both of which require reliable and abundant electricity. Without a stable grid, Mexico risks losing out on opportunities that could drive growth and employment.
A Long Road to Resolution
CFE has announced plans to modernize the grid, proposing to build 6,000 kilometers of new transmission lines over five years, representing more than 50% of the current infrastructure. The government has also pledged to spend more than $8 billion to upgrade the network. But these projects will take years to complete, and in the meantime, the existing grid continues to deteriorate.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the problems are not uniform across the country. Each region faces its own combination of challenges, from extreme weather to outdated equipment to rapid urban growth. This means that a one-size-fits-all solution is unlikely to work, and addressing the crisis will require sustained investment and coordination at both the federal and local levels.
For now, Mexicans in affected areas are left to endure the uncertainty of an electrical system that has become increasingly unreliable. The blackouts of 2026 are not a temporary phenomenon. They are the predictable result of years of neglect, a grid held together by patchwork repairs, and a system that has prioritized generation over distribution. Until that imbalance is corrected, the lights will keep going out.