If your lights go out this evening, it may not be an unexpected blackout. Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) is warning that controlled power outages will become necessary. BEL says Mexico’s state-owned utility, Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), has warned that electricity exports to Belize may be reduced as demand rises across its own network.
If that happens, BEL says it may introduce controlled load shedding between 6:00 p.m. and midnight to protect Belize’s national electricity system from a wider outage.
The planned outages could affect sections of Orange Walk, Corozal, Belize, Cayo, Stann Creek and Toledo.
According to BEL, it has implemented efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on imported electricity. It said it is in talks with independent power producers BABCO, Belcogen and Santander to boost in-country generation in the short term, alongside long-term plans for grid-connected solar.
During a July 3 interview with News 5, Executive Chairman Lynn Young explained that the company is installing a 20-megawatt emergency generation unit near Mile Eight on the George Price Highway.
“We are renting about twenty megawatts of generation that we are putting in place… so that in the event CFE cannot supply, we can meet it,” Young said.
The unit was expected this month, but shipping delays linked to global conflict have pushed its arrival to mid-to-late August.
Until then, BEL says controlled outages remain a last resort to keep the country’s electricity grid stable if imports from Mexico are reduced.
