Photo: Chief Executive Officer of BEL, John Mencias
by Kristen Ku
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. May 2, 2024
Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has warned its customers to brace for power shortages across the country due to an undersupply from Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico’s state-owned utility company.
The announcement came late Monday evening as BEL posted a notice online at approximately 8:00 p.m., detailing the expected disruptions without specifying exact times or locations for load shedding.
However, almost immediately following the announcement, various districts, including the Cayo area, Belize, Stann Creek, and Corozal, reported power cuts. BEL had assured that these shortages are temporary, but has linked them to necessary upgrades at their facilities.
According to BEL, they are currently undergoing enhancements to increase the capacity of its gas turbine at the Mile 8 facility located on the George Price Highway. These works are expected to conclude by Sunday, May 5th. BEL has stated that once the gas turbine is back online, it should sufficiently meet local electricity demand, independent of CFE’s supply.
Unfortunately, complications escalated on Tuesday morning when BEL faced an unexpected failure in its transmission system, affecting a substantial portion of the country. This system collapse occurred between the Chan Chen substation in the north and the Belcogen plant, causing extended voltage issues due to a concurrent maxed-out supply from Mexico.
“At the time that this happened, we had Mexico supplying us at maximum capacity, and therefore we had limited resources in the country to be able to match the demand of the system that stayed in place. And therefore, the system collapsed,” Jose Moreno, General Manager of Distribution Services at BEL explained.
He stated that the lack of the gas turbine, which provides an additional 20 megawatts, significantly hindered recovery efforts. This turbine could speed up system recovery compared to smaller units, which are less efficient in energizing the transmission lines.
The ongoing instability is expected to persist until next Monday. Moreno cautioned that further supply curtailments by CFE might require rotational outages, particularly during peak hours, typically between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.
Nevertheless, Moreno remains optimistic, stating, “We are doing an upgrade of the gas turbine at Mile 8. With that upgrade we should be getting 10 additional megawatts to the 20 which that unit was rated earlier; and that unit is supposed to start commissioning by this weekend, so we expect to have that unit online by early next week.”
Residents are advised to stay informed via BEL’s official communication channels for updates on the power supply situation, and to prepare for intermittent power outages as the company and its teams work to restore stability to Belize’s power grid.
