Unlike water, phone and gas services, contracting your electric service could be considered the most tedious. Here are a few tips that will make your life easier when setting up your electricity service.

What is the CFE

CFE (Comision Federal de Electricidad or Federal Electricity Commission) is a government managed company and only provider or electrical power in Rocky Point, and it provides electricity to more than 97.33% of the population in Mexico. Since the CFE is the dominant electric company in Mexico, most customers refer to it as “La comision” (e.g. “The commission”). While there are other Mexican government commissions, the term is almost exclusively applied to the CFE.

The CFE started its operations in August 14, 1937 (you can read more of its history here). CFE was awarded the Edison Prize Award 2009 by power companies in recognition of the contribution to the advancement of the global power industry (view the note here).

Prerequisites

Before you go the electric company to contract your service, you will need to have installed your electrical meter to the specifications given by CFE (PDF 1.5mb).

Note: There should be a opening of 53cm x 61cm (21in x 24 in) & the electric meter should be no more than 30cm (12in) from your wall.

I would recommend having an experience electrician do all this work for you it should be work of about half a day and should cost you around $15 USD.

Contracting Your Electrical Service

Once your electrical meter is installed you will need the following paperwork to contract your electrical service:

If you are a homeowner:

• Photo ID
• Address & house number
• Post number (this will be the post closest to your house).
• You will need to go to the offices of “Desarrollo Social” (located in the municipal building, view map bellow for location) for:
  • If you are starting to build: “carta de liberacion” (cost about $150 USD)
• You will need to go to the offices of “Desarrollo Urbano” (located in the municipal building, view map bellow for location) for:
  • “Nomenclatura (house number)” (cost about $35 USD)

If you are renting a home you will need all the above paperwork plus:

• Copy of the rental contract
• Copy of the photo ID of the owner
• Copy of the “recibo predial” (its the tax payment of the lot, and can be provided by the owner)

In adition to this requirements, if you live in the area of “Las Conchas” or “Cholla Bay” you will need:

• For “Las Conchas”: a special permit you can request the the CFE offices.
• For “Cholla Bay”: a letter or permit from Mr. Brown (you can request this permit via the realtor that sold you the lot or house).

Paying Your Electrical Bill

Here is a PDF that will help you understand your electric bill (PDF 1.2 mb).

There is various ways you can pay your electric bill:

• Directly at the office, you can either go to the teller or pay on the CFE-Matico (auto-pay), ATM like machine (in your electric bill there is a bar code that you pass through the machine scanner).
• You can pay directly in the Electric Company website, you just need to register in there website.
• You can make your payments through your Mexican bank, either going to the teller or online via the bank website.
• Here other methods.

Reconnecting Your Electrical Service

In the case your electric meter has a red plastic tag and you have no electricity, you will need to go directly to the offices of CFE to pay the electric bill and pay a reconnection fee (from about $5 USD to $8 USD). It is usually reconnected in the same day.

In the map: offices of CFE, Desarrolo Urbano & Desarrollo Social.

Sources & other links

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Related posts:

1. Contracting Your Phone Service