The number of commercial and industrial prosumers grew from 1,205 in July 2025 to 2,089 in July 2026, an increase of 73.4 percent. Capacity expanded faster than user count, indicating larger average installation sizes. Mean installed capacity per commercial or industrial user increased from approximately 54.4 kW to 63.2 kW, a rise of 16.2 percent. The shift suggests growing participation from medium-scale industrial facilities rather than small commercial operations alone.
Growth accelerated through 2026. Commercial and industrial capacity stood at 98.4 MW at the end of December 2025, indicating a 34.2 percent increase through July. Using January 2026 as a benchmark, when the segment totaled 104 MW, capacity rose 27 percent by July. Monthly additions remained consistent, with the segment adding 4.7 MW between June and July 2026 alone, a month-on-month increase of 3.7 percent in capacity and 3.2 percent in user count.
Total distributed generation capacity across all categories reached 165.5 MW in July 2026, up from 82.4 MW a year earlier, doubling national capacity under the scheme. Residential installations grew from 12.7 MW to 13.2 MW between June and July, while official entities edged up from 10.9 MW to 10.9 MW. The number of total user-generators increased 61.2 percent year-on-year, from 3,034 to 4,891.
The commercial and industrial segment’s sustained expansion occurs as regulatory frameworks for distributed generation mature across Latin America. Mexico’s National Energy Commission is developing new provisions on third-party sales, electricity supply and access to private networks within industrial parks, addressing the next phase of on-site generation deployment. Brazil’s ANEEL opened consultation on requirements that would bring approximately 33 GW of distributed generation under greater utility observability and control, reflecting grid management challenges associated with decentralized capacity growth.
This article was curated and published as part of our South American energy market coverage.
