Since its launch in 1995, Mexico’s national energy efficiency standards and labeling (S&L) program has expanded to include regulations for 26 major appliances, equipment, and building components1 in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. This program evaluation analyzes impacts on Mexican consumers and the national economy from energy efficiency standards on residential refrigerators and window air conditioners in the early 2000s, as well as a standard on minisplit air conditioners that implemented in 2011. A clear improvement in the average efficiency as a result of the standards was observed over the period analyzed: the average efficiency of Mexican refrigerators increase by 17% or 27% depending on product class, about 4% for window air conditioners, and over 7% for split system air conditioners. As a result of these standards, we estimatesavings of about 6 TWh of electricity per year in 2014, roughly equivalent to two 500 MW power plants.
Given the electricity generation mix during this period, we estimate that about 24 million metric tons of CO2 were avoided through 2014. Mexican energy efficiency standards also provided economic benefits to Mexican consumers and industry. Electricity saved by the standards resulted in roughly 50 billion2 Mexican pesos saved (about 3 billion3 US dollars at 2015 exchange rates) by Mexican consumers between 2002 and 2014. Mexican industry representatives interviewed acknowledged the introduction of standards as a positive regulatory mechanism that creates a level playing field, sends a clear signal for investment and increased awareness of energy efficiency among Mexican consumers