What article 30 says
Self-supply is the output of a power plant with a capacity equal to or greater than 0.7 MW intended to meet the holder's own on-site needs under a valid generation permit. That is the first paragraph, and it is the one everyone quotes.
The second paragraph is the one that matters for the schedule: interconnected self-supply in plants with a capacity between 0.7 and 20 MW may have a simplified procedure for obtaining the generation permit, in accordance with the guidelines the National Energy Commission (Comisión Nacional de Energía) issues for that purpose.
And the third adds that self-supply may be isolated or interconnected, and preferably use renewable energy.
Three paragraphs that reframe the conversation: the 0.7 MW threshold does not open one regime, it opens two — one with a simplified route up to 20 MW and another above that.
What changes in practice and what does not
What changes is the procedure, not the technical obligations. An 8 MW project still needs interconnection studies, protection coordination up to the task, metering in line with regulations and Grid Code (Código de Red) compliance. The permit goes through a shorter route; the engineering is not simplified at all.
And there is something the simplified route does not touch: if the generation is intermittent and will inject surplus, the requirement for your own backup with storage, or payment for backup to the state utility, still applies under section III of article 32. In projects of this size that requirement stops being a detail and becomes a budget line.
What does change, and a lot, is planning. A project whose permit goes through the simplified route has a different schedule from one that goes through the ordinary route, and that moves the commercial operation date, the disbursement profile and the negotiation with the end customer or the lender.
What to have ready before starting the procedure
The load profile, measured, not estimated. At this size the difference between sizing on annual consumption and sizing on the curve stops being a percentage error and becomes a megawatt error. And since the permit is granted by capacity, poor sizing gets locked into the document.
The real availability at the point of connection. Not the capacity you would like to have: the capacity that exists, in writing, and on what timeline. It is the fact that decides whether the project exists at that site.
The heat balance, if cogeneration is involved. Article 42 establishes that the permitted capacity must be only the power obtainable from the process's unused heat. In cogeneration that article sets the ceiling, so you need to know it before applying for capacity.
Protection coordination of the actual facility. Adding several megawatts of generation changes short-circuit levels. A facility coordinated to receive power is not coordinated to generate it.
Who does what in a project in this bracket
The part that is always ours, at any size, is metering and diagnostics: the load curve, the harmonic profile, the compliance status and the facility survey. Without that no project in this range is sized properly, and it is the part most often skipped.
The electrical infrastructure inside the facility —substation, distribution, protection, metering, electromechanical work— is also ours, and it does not change in nature because the project is larger.
Development of the generation project in this bracket, with its permit and plant engineering, is handled by GIS Power, from the same group. It is not a referral: within the group, that is the company with hands-on experience in projects of this scale, and it makes sense for whoever has it to do it.
For you that means a single technical assessment and a single point of contact to get started. Classifying the project is our job, not yours.
Sources
Electricity Sector Law, DOF March 18, 2025 · Regulations of the Electricity Sector Law, DOF October 3, 2025. Articles 17, 19, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 42 and 151.
The article 30 simplified procedure refers to the guidelines the CNE issues: the specific scope of the simplification is found in those guidelines, not in the law. This article states that the route exists and in which bracket it applies, not how much it shortens the timeline.
20 MW is the ceiling of the simplified procedure for interconnected self-supply. Below that figure and above 0.7, your project is in the bracket with the shortest route — and it still needs the same engineering as if it were above.
