EECE Expo 2027: energy moved to the factory floor

Bajío Ventures · October 2026

On 1 October we were in Mexico City for the launch of EECE Expo: a panel on energy opportunities for industry in northern Mexico. What was presented is a new trade show. What we took away is a reading of the market that applies equally, or more, to the Bajío.

What EECE Expo is

EECE Expo (Energy Efficiency & Circular Economy Expo) is a new trade show from Informa Markets. The first edition runs 22 to 24 February 2027 at Cintermex, Monterrey, co-located with Expo Manufactura (23 to 25 February). Admission is free for industry professionals.

It has two parts: an exhibition floor and a conference programme, the EECE Summit, with two tracks and one theme per day.

Day	Energy efficiency	Circular economy
22 Feb	Green hydrogen as the horizon of the future	Interconnected systems: from the circular to the regenerative economy
23 Feb	The sustainability that sets advanced manufacturing and automation apart	Green financing to strengthen the technology transition
24 Feb	Foundations for building a sustainable future	Evolving towards circular cities

It is supported by SENER, CONUEE, Nuevo León’s State Renewable Energy Agency, the Nuevo León Energy Cluster, ALENER, ECOCE, the Mexican Hydrogen Association, Iniciativa Climática de México and the Texas European Chamber of Commerce.

The decision that matters is the venue. Informa already runs Intersolar Mexico in Mexico City, a generation show. It placed this one next to Expo Manufactura, which it presents as the country’s leading industrial event. The message is that energy has stopped being a purchasing matter and has become a plant matter.

The figure behind the venue

Informa justified Monterrey with figures from the National Energy Commission (CNE) as of the end of 2025:

• North region: 29% of the country’s distributed generation.
• Bajío-West region: 26%.

Two regions, 55% of the total. The North was presented as the fastest-growing zone. The Bajío-West was described as the “traditionally important” region, three points behind. Jalisco is the leading state with 748 MW and Guanajuato is fourth with 358 MW.

Three readings for Bajío industry

1. The average misleads. Mexico closed 2025 with 5,190 MW of distributed generation across 600,651 applications, 742 MW more than a year earlier. The average system is 8.64 kW. By number of contracts, the market is residential and small-commercial rooftops. The industrial segment sits in another category, the one opened by the 2025 Electricity Sector Law:

	Distributed generation	Interconnected self-supply
Capacity	Up to 0.7 MW	0.7 to 20 MW
Permit	Exempt	Simplified procedure with the CNE
Grid	Interconnection contract	Interconnected
Surplus	Injection to the grid	Sale to CFE only

For a mid-sized plant, the question is no longer whether it can generate. It is which of the two categories suits it and how much capacity the grid has at its connection point.

2. Efficiency comes before generation, and it has a date. CONUEE’s new provisions, published in the Official Gazette (DOF) on 30 September 2026, apply to large energy users: more than 45 GWh of electricity or 70,000 barrels of crude oil equivalent of fuels per year. They must have an energy management system certified under ISO 50001 by January 2028, and CONUEE begins verifications in June 2027. EECE Expo falls just before that calendar. A plant that reaches February without an energy assessment will be late.

3. Energy, waste and financing sit at the same table. The show puts energy efficiency together with recycling, waste management and green financing. In a plant they are the same team and the same budget. Suppliers that sell them separately will compete against whoever integrates them.

What remains to be seen

• The programme is still thematic. No speakers or exhibitor list have been published. It is a first edition: there are no attendance figures to assess.
• Day one opens with green hydrogen. It is a valid horizon, but far from the decisions a mid-sized plant has to make in 2027: power factor, contracted demand, self-supply, storage.
• Share is not growth. The figures on the market slide are percentages of the installed total, not growth rates by region.

What comes next

We will be in Monterrey in February. Before then, a plant should have three things settled: an energy assessment, its self-supply category and the financing structure of the project. That is what we work on.

This article is for information only and is not legal or regulatory advice. The regional percentages come from Informa Markets’ presentation using CNE data; the exact composition of each region was not detailed. CONUEE’s obligations should be confirmed against the publication in the Official Gazette.

Sources: Informa Markets, EECE Expo launch presentation (Mexico City, 1 Oct 2026) · EECE Expo, official site · CNE, Distributed Generation report, second half of 2025 · pv magazine México, distributed generation 2025, 2 Jun 2026 · Energía a Debate, distributed generation in the second half of 2025, Jun 2026 · Energy21, new obligations for large energy users, 30 Sep 2026

Bajío Ventures — a Mexican energy-infrastructure investment group based in Guanajuato: capital, a data platform on the region’s industrial base, and a German industrial channel, with its own advisory presence in Berlin.