Belize has declared a power supply emergency, but the biggest question remains unanswered: where will the country find the additional energy it needs? Last week, Cabinet approved BEL’s request for the emergency declaration, clearing the way for the company to negotiate new power purchases and address a projected supply shortfall. But with Mexico’s CFE facing its own energy challenges and becoming an increasingly unreliable supplier, BEL must now look elsewhere. While discussions about buying power from Guatemala remain at the conceptual stage, the government says it is also exploring renewable energy options right here at home. Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Public Utilities, Dr. Leroy Almendarez, says the goal is to secure reliable, locally generated power at a lower cost than what BEL currently pays Mexico. Here is how he explains it.
Leroy Almendarez
Dr. Leroy Almendarez, CEO, Ministry of Public Utilities
“Any procurement, power procurement that takes place, the consideration is that we must remember, the focus is increased access. But we must also ensure that procurement is made at the least possible cost of whatever is available and this will be through domestic sources. And I could qualify this, I don’t know if we spoke about it the last time, but there is something called distributed generation. And what that means is that there is a framework set up, and through the PUC and you can check their website and this is where you can use renewable energy. And let me just say offhand that the procurement is going to be focused on renewable energy. Therefore, if you get that license, and I believe it goes from two hundred and fifty kilowatt to about one megawatt of power. It means that what will happen now is that BEL will go out and go through the procurement process using renewable energy. But let me just, since I was talking about distributed generation, it simply means that you can buy power, you can buy your panel, electrify your homes or business and grid tie it, meaning you can sell the excess back to the grid. The cost for that is six and a half cents U.S. or thirteen cents Belize. It is the cheapest source of power. As a matter of fact, the grid is already receiving eleven megawatts of power through that source. So the procurement, any form of negotiation, that is a part of the conversation. The last thing you want is to procure expensive power and though the power is available it becomes an issue where consumers would have to curtail because it is too expensive.”
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