Tag Archives: electricity issues in Mexico

March 8, 2025 · 10:45 am

Second CFE Billing Cycle

After the dispapaye (chaos) of the last billing cycle, we were determined to get our ducks in a row before the next. We started with the list of 8 meters which were not in the system or entered incorrectly and the incorrect numbering (lots instead of official numbers). Super Prez created a list requesting the lot numbers be changed to the official numbers, and every colono with electricity signed it. As I mentioned before, the municipio had granted Super Prez the authority to generate the official numbers and he had a letter to that effect from the presidencia (town hall). However, when he presented the list to the local CFE office, they called the regional CFE office, which said that it wouldn’t do.

Meanwhile, the restructuring at the CFE main offices was going on. If you recall, CFE begged off from attending our convivio (community gathering) in November because several higher-ups, including the local representative, had been fired for corruption. In the free-for-all that followed, the CFE supervisor who oversaw the electricity installation in La Yacata was promoted to fill one of the vacancies. While that might be perceived as good, as he was aware of our situation, it didn’t seem to matter any. He came on a site inspection with one of the more senior supervisors who threw a fit, saying we committed fraud as we certainly didn’t qualify for this federal program.

Super Prez was summoned to the regional office to account for our sins or some other such nonsense. The gathered CFE overseers accused him (and us) of misrepresenting La Yacata so we could receive this federal grant. Super Prez explained that the grant was a complete surprise to us. He then turned it around and told them to check their records to see who had approved the project. He waited while they dug around. They came back chagrinned. The application had one signature, a colono, not even on the mesa directiva (board of directors). None of the information about the status of La Yacata had been filled out, because, not surprisingly, the colono didn’t know any of it.

So what we believe happened is that at some point a year or so ago, a CFE grant scouting party stopped by and came across the colono sitting in front of his house. Instead of sending them to me up the road, this colono took it upon himself to become the community representative, and the grant scouting party accepted that. Since the grant money had to be spent and we obviously needed electricity, the scouting party submitted the application, which somebody approved. We first heard of the grant when CFE showed up with a plan and start date. We certainly weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and gladly accepted.

Anyway, with some grumbling, the issue was dropped. However, it took several more trips to the regional and local CFE offices for the official numbers generated by Super Prez with full municipal authority to be accepted.

When that happened, Super Prez also got the go-ahead to connect the 39 muretes (posts) and fincas (buildings) that had not been included in the initial project. I worked with each colono to gather the required photos and documentation. (See Downed Lines and New Connections)

When the first additional solicitud (application) was finally ready, I handed the folder of items off and told the colono to go at 9 am Monday to the CFE office. He did, and on Tuesday, CFE zoomed into La Yacata, found me walking Cocoa, and asked for directions to the house. The electricity was installed that very day.

Now that we had official numbers, we needed to put them up on the walls. I bugged and bugged, sending messages and calling colonos so that they would put those numbers up before the next CFE bills arrived. We still didn’t have the street signs up, but the numbers started popping up. It made my heart glad! Things were beginning to feel like a community instead of a wasteland.

Turns out, all that effort wasn’t needed. When the CFE delivery guy came, he encountered the same colono who had made himself the official representative for the grant. He handed over the entire stack of recibos. The colono didn’t want to be responsible for all those bills, so he brought them to my door. I sent the word out that I had them for everyone to come and pick up. There were still four missing bills and two others that I wasn’t sure were correct. Well, I suppose we have to take what we get. I sent the two I thought were incorrect to the CFE office with pictures of their meters and the bill and told the other four that we’d wait for another billing cycle and see what happened.

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Want to read about the first failed attempt at modernization in La Yacata? Check out La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico available on Amazon.

First Disasterous Billing Cycle from CFE

Now that we had electricity, we went shopping! We bought a fridge, having not had one for the 19 years we’ve lived in La Yacata. We also bought a TV, but since I didn’t want anyone using my internet when I was teaching, we had to get a DVD player, which was fine since we’ve accumulated an expansive movie library over the years. All of which meant we used electricity.

Anyway, the day came to pay the piper. In this case, the flutist tooting their merry little tune was CFE, and they wouldn’t make it easy for us. To be fair, we didn’t have street signs up yet. The signs had been ordered but had not yet arrived. And then, to complicate matters, the numbers used to input the connections into the CFE system were lot numbers, not house numbers (because, again, we had applied for the official numbers, but they had not yet been granted). However, how hard would it have been to ASK someone when the CFE bill delivery crew came to deliver the bills? ANYONE would have sent them along to me, and I could have helped them organize the pile of 43 recibos.

But wait, there weren’t 43 recibos. At best, eight bills were delivered, haphazardly, I might add. They were stuck on the muretes (metered posts) rather than slid under the doors. I went around and collected them so they wouldn’t blow away in the wind, then sent messages to the owners that they could pick up their recibos from me.

So what happened to the rest? I didn’t get a bill. My son didn’t get a bill. My sister-in-law didn’t get a bill. My father-in-law didn’t get a bill. Well, I was going to have to go and find out. So I took pictures of all the meters and the list of names of those included in the program and marched my fanny down to the local CFE office.

The lovely lady at the desk couldn’t tell me what happened to the rest of the recibos. Apparently, this sort of shenanigans wasn’t unheard from the local office (See ¡Les cortan la luz! Denuncian que CFE dejó de entregar recibos sin avisarles). She could provide me with duplicate bills from the names on the list I gave her. Well, that was something. She went through the list, one by one, printing out these duplicados. There were eight that weren’t in the system. I showed her the pictures of the meters. She took pictures of my pictures from my phone and sent them on to the Salvatierra office. One had the wrong name attached to the meter entered into the system, and the name owner had paid the bill for the meter owner, which also needed to be addressed.

She implied the eight missing meters were serious issues, giving me the impression that she believed they were stolen and installed illegally. Well, CFE installed them, so if they were stolen, that would be CFE’s bad, not the colonos of La Yacata, but whatever.

I took the duplicados and filed them away (which turned out to be a blessing later). Instead of having them pick up these duplicates, I sent messages to the 43 colonos explaining that if they had not received a recibo they would need to take a photo of their meter and go to the CFE office to get a copy of their account information AND PAY IT.

The amount on all the recibios was 235 pesos to cover the deposit for the connection. Some people squawked about the price, but for the colossal investment CFE made, stringing the wires from the intersection, five transformers, 20+ new posts, connecting the individual houses, and providing the meters, 235 pesos was NOTHING.

I went to pay ours, my son’s, my sister-in-law’s, and my father-in-law’s. While I was in line at the machines to pay, another colono who was at the CFE office asked me to pay theirs and gave me the cash so he could get back to work. I guess I don’t have any work or anything, but whatever. I paid them all.

But, wouldn’t you know it, four individuals forgot to pay their bill. Not surprisingly, CFE had NO trouble finding La Yacata to cut off their service. Those individuals would have to make arrangements with CFE to reestablish service. There wasn’t anything more I could do for them.

The second billing cycle bills should be arriving this week in La Yacata. We shall see how it goes.

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Start from the beginning with La Yacata Revolution: How NOT to Buy a Piece of Heaven in Mexico, available on Amazon.

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Filed under Electricity issues

Tagged as CFE, electricity issues in Mexico, expat in Mexico, La Yacata Revolution, living in rural Mexico

January 21, 2025 · 7:13 am

Downed Lines and New Connections

We hadn’t had electricity for a month when we had our first outage. Fortunately, it was localized to just one house, but still, I couldn’t help thinking–this was why we didn’t have nice things in La Yacata.

What happened, according to the neighbor was a large remolque (dump truck) was going up the hill and caught on the wire connecting to the main line to the house. The damage was bad. Fortunately, it didn’t tear down the main line, just the connecting wire, so there’s that, but still.

I moseyed up the road to take some pictures and sent them to Super Prez, who made a report to CFE. CFE assured him they would be out in 24 hours to fix it. Super Prez also called the owner of the house, who isn’t living there currently, to let them know about the issue.

24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours….came and went—no sign of the CFE repair crew. Two weeks later, the owner called and asked me if I could get Super Prez to follow up. Every time she called CFE asked for a copy of the electricity receipt, which we hadn’t gotten yet. So I sent a message to Super Prez, and he called.

Not an hour later, a CFE truck zoomed by the house. Sadly, they disappeared into the horizon and did not stop to check the line. Later that evening, or the next, I forget which, a CFE truck was driving up and down the roads and finally stopped to ask for directions. Super Prez happened to be here with an update on other matters and got them orientated. However, since the entire pole had been mangled, it would need replaced and they didn’t have that on hand and it would have to be ordered.

While we waited for repairs, the owners of two of the five houses that weren’t included in the original CFE project because of their location approached us to ask about getting the electricity connected. Measurements were taken and considered. Technically, they both were just under the 50-meter maximum from the last installed post. The problem was that the line would need to cross a road and that might cause CFE to say no to their connections. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So, both owners went to CFE to ask about it, but both were refused. They came to me with the new requirements, which I reviewed and sent to Super Prez.

Requirements for Contracting:

For Tenants:
- Mandatory submission of:
  - Copy of the lease agreement.
  - Copy of the INE (official ID) of both the landlord and the tenant.
Power of Attorney:
- If the owner cannot be present to sign the contract:
  - Submit a simple power of attorney signed by two witnesses.
  - Copies of the INEs of the witnesses.
Ownership Documentation:
- Valid proof of ownership issued by the local delegate (applies to rural communities).
- Copy of the current property tax receipt.
- Valid proof of the official property number.
Official Identification:
- Copy of a valid INE, passport, or professional license (both sides).
Tax Identification and Fiscal Status:
- RFC with homoclave or current tax status certificate (issued within the month prior to contracting) when service invoicing is required.
- Mandatory for businesses.
Contact Information:
- Email address and phone number with national area code.
Technical Preparation:
- Printed photographs of:
  - Electrical connection box (mufa).
  - Base.
  - Grounding rod.
  - Circuit breaker.
Visibility of Official Number and Meter:
- Printed photo of the official property number visible on the facade and/or meter base.
- Photo of the nearest neighbor’s meter number.
For Legal Entities:
- Copy of the certificate of incorporation.
- Copy of the INE of the legal representative.
- Copy of the notarized power of attorney.

As we are neither an officially sanctioned independent community nor part of the municipio, the collection of documents was a bit hodgepodge. These included the new application, a copy of the property certificate, which served as the valid proof of ownership issued by the local delegate (Super Prez), a copy of the INE (official ID) of the owners, a copy of the articles of incorporation, a copy of the INE of the legal representative (Super Prez), a copy of the power of attorney, a copy of the current property tax receipt, and printed photographs of the electrical connection box, base, and the meter number of the nearest neighbor.

I organized this packet of paper into individual folders for the applying colonos and had them come and pick it up along with the photos of the various items requested in the list. One colono served as the guinea pig and took it to the CFE office where they were told that in addition to the paperwork turned in, he must present the número oficial vigente (official address number), which we didn’t have.

Our application for those numbers had already been given to the presidencia and they were sitting on the paperwork. So, Super Prez went to the CFE office in Salvatierra to find out if there was a workaround.

The downed line did eventually get fixed, but little did we realize that this was just the beginning of our issues with CFE.

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Need to catch up on our first failed attempts at modernization in La Yacata? Then La Yacata Revolution is where you should start!