Electricity demand of non-residential buildings in Mexico

•In Mexico there is an underestimation problem with electricity consumption in Non-Residential buildings.•A bottom-up model of electricity consumption was applied in the country considering 8 building types in 3 climatic zones.•Results indicate that electricity consumption for Non-Residential buildings is nearly three times higher than official data.•The Buildings sector (Residential and Non-Residential) is the highest electricity consumer in Mexico.•Electricity in Mexican non-residential buildings has been misallocated to the industrial sector. By now, there is a consensus that non-residential buildings (commercial and public buildings) present important opportunities for reducing cost, fuel inputs and greenhouse gas emissions, especially because of their intensive use of electricity. Till now, however, in emerging economies energy efficiency opportunities in buildings are typically more focused on households. In Mexico, official government statistics suggest that the non-residential sector electricity demand is low compared to the residential and industrial sectors, but previous studies suggest that non-residential electricity use is underestimated due to the reliance of electricity tariff classes, which may not adequately distinguish large commercial buildings from industrial facilities. The analysis presented here follows the same general bottom-up methodology as two recent studies, but enhances them with a more rigorous and up-to-date assessment of electricity drivers of building sub-types from a variety of sources. The result is a more reliable estimate of non-residential electricity demand by building sub-type and climate zone. Non-residential buildings electricity demand in 2017 is found to be 66.9 TWh, which is nearly three times the official estimate of 22.6 TWh in the same year. Such a large discrepancy likely distorts the picture of energy use in the country and may lead to an under-emphasis by government and private sector actors in managing energy use in this important sector.