A letter nobody in Tulum voted on decides when the power subsidy switches off

Electricity bills in Tulum are calculated under CFE tariff 1B, which removes the household subsidy once average consumption exceeds 400 kilowatt-hours per month. One class higher, on 1C, the ceiling is 850.

That single classification does more to the size of a Tulum recibo than any appliance in the house. It sets how many kilowatt-hours arrive at the cheap rate, how many at the middle rate, and the point at which the subsidy disappears entirely and every unit is billed at the unsubsidized price.

Almost nobody who pays the bill chose it, or can change it. The tariff class comes from CFE's temperature rules rather than from the municipality, and the first place most residents learn theirs is the code printed at the top of the paper.

Why the recibo says 1B

CFE sorts domestic customers into classes by the locality's average minimum summer temperature, with tariffs ranging from 1 in temperate places through 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, and 1F in progressively hotter ones. The hotter the class, the more electricity a household may use before the subsidy runs out, on the logic that a hot coast runs air conditioning the way a highland town does not.

Tulum sits on 1B. Quintana Roo Hoy reported on July 22, 2026, that residents were asking CFE to move the municipality to 1C, describing Tulum as having some of the highest electricity costs in the state while other municipalities are billed under a cheaper class.

Where exactly the temperature lines fall is harder to pin down than it should be, and readers comparing sources this year will find two incompatible tables. The energy guide Calcele, updated on August 16, 2026, places the thresholds at 25 degrees for 1A, 28 for 1B, 30 for 1C, 31 for 1D, 32 for 1E and 33 for 1F, and states plainly that its figures are reference values rather than official monthly rates. Several national outlets, including Eje Central in April and Luz Noticias in May, published a different ladder that starts at 22 degrees and rises in two-degree steps.

The two cannot both be right, and the consumption limits attached to each class line up with the first version rather than the second. Treat any temperature table found online as a guide, and the code on your own bill as the fact.

400 kilowatt hours, and the subsidy is gone

The number that matters on 1B is 400.

Infobae, reporting on May 1, 2026, set out the ceiling for each class before a household is reclassified into the Tarifa Doméstica de Alto Consumo, the high consumption tariff everyone here calls DAC. Tariff 1 tips at 250 kilowatt-hours per month. 1A at 300. 1B at 400. 1C at 850. 1D at 1,000, 1E at 2,000 and 1F at 2,500.

The trigger is not one hot month. CFE looks at the rolling average over the last 12 months, and once that average crosses the class threshold, the subsidy is removed automatically.

What replaces it is the part people feel. The guide Recibo de Luz, updated in August 2026, puts the DAC rate at roughly 5.54 to 7.03 pesos per kilowatt-hour under August rates, compared with basic block rates that are close to a peso. Calcele's reference figures for the subsidized blocks on 1B and 1C run at about 0.99 pesos for the first tranche, about 1.20 in the middle and about 3.22 above it, with DAC around 6.20. Neither set is an official CFE table for a specific municipality and billing period, and both state as much.

A house with a pool pump, two air conditioning units running through August, and a couple of adults working from home clears 400 kilowatt hours a month without doing anything unusual. That is the whole complaint behind the petition.

Alex Monroy's petition asks the city to press CFE

Alex Monroy opened a petition on Change.org on July 13, 2026, asking the Tulum municipal government and CAPA, the state water utility, to formally request that CFE reclassify the municipality from 1B to 1C or 1D. It has gathered 1,708 supporters and the platform now marks it as a victory.

The argument in the text is about temperature. Tulum, it contends, already meets the 1C condition of an average temperature above 30 degrees, and the 1D condition of an average above 31 degrees in summer. It does not contain a CFE response, and none has been published since.

A petition marked a victory on a platform is not a reclassification. Until CFE issues one, the letter on the bill stays where it is.

Summer rates ran to October 31

The seasonal rate is the other lever, and on this coast it is already running.

CFE applies its summer tariff in stages across the country, and the Yucatan peninsula goes first. Eje Central reported on April 27, 2026, that the peninsular region covering Quintana Roo, Yucatan, and Campeche started on March 1, ahead of the Pacific north on April 1, the center of the country on June 15, and the rest in between. Luz Noticias gave the same March 1 start for the peninsula on May 4. Both put the end of the summer period at October 31, 2026, nationwide.

For a household in Tulum that means eight months of the year on the more generous summer blocks and four months on the tighter winter ones, with the switch landing on November 1. Consumption that sat comfortably inside the subsidy in September can move a rolling average in the wrong direction by January.

A 5 percent lighting charge the Supreme Court struck down

One line on the Tulum bill was not CFE's.

On September 17, 2025, the Supreme Court invalidated the first two paragraphs of Article 143 Quáter of Tulum's municipal revenue law, which funded public lighting through a 5 percent surcharge on electricity consumption collected via the CFE bill. The court held that the charge was an unconstitutional tax that broke the principles of equity and proportionality. The case, Acción de Inconstitucionalidad 19/2024, was brought by the National Human Rights Commission against tax provisions in several municipalities in Quintana Roo and was reported by La Jornada Maya on September 21, 2025.

The ruling does not scrub the line off every bill by itself, and the reporting on it did not name an implementation deadline. It does give a resident a specific thing to look for on the paper, and a specific thing to ask about at the municipal treasury if it is still there.

Reading electricity bills in Tulum

Five things on the page carry the whole story.

• The tariff code near the top. If it reads 1B, the 400-kilowatt-hour ceiling is yours. If it reads DAC, the subsidy is already gone.
• The billing period and the kilowatt-hours consumed in it, which is the raw number that every other calculation runs from.
• The consumption history, usually printed as a bar chart of previous periods. That is the rolling average CFE is watching, visible before it becomes a problem.
• The blocks themselves, listed separately as basic, intermediate and excess, each with its own price. The excess line is where a bill goes from annoying to alarming.
• Anything below the energy charges. Public lighting, taxes and any municipal concept sit here, and this is where the 5 percent lighting charge appeared.

Recibo de Luz also notes a floor. A minimum of 25 kilowatt-hours, which it puts at roughly 27 to 30 pesos plus taxes, is charged whether or not the property is occupied. An apartment left empty for a season still generates a bill.

Getting out of DAC takes a full year

Falling into DAC is quick. Leaving is not.

A household must keep consumption below the regional threshold for 12 consecutive months, according to Infobae's account of the rules, and then request reclassification through CFE by submitting bills showing reduced use. There is no shortcut, no appeal on the grounds that the summer was hot, and no partial credit for eleven good months followed by one bad one.

Which makes the bar chart on the bill the most useful thing on it. A household on 1B, watching its average climb through 350, has a decision to make while it is still cheap to make.

Whether any of this changes now sits with the municipality. Monroy's petition asks the city and CAPA to submit the reclassification request to CFE, and neither has filed. Until one of them does, and until CFE answers it, the number on a Tulum bill that decides everything else remains 400.

For the wider picture of what living here costs, our piece on why Tulum is so expensive covers the forces behind the prices; our neighborhoods coverage tracks the grid problems in La Veleta and Aldea Zama; and our 2026 safety guide addresses the questions new arrivals ask next.

What does a summer electricity bill actually cost in your Tulum neighborhood? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.