B.E.L.: sabotage dangerous and costly to consumers
It began as a tactic to support efforts by the unions and political Opposition to force the resignation of the government and hold new elections. But the sabotage of the nation’s electrical system, hardly a brilliant idea in the first place, appears destined to backfire as an irate public is growing weary of the inconvenience and high cost of senseless blackouts. Today Belize Electricity Limited hosted the media on a tour of vital infrastructure that has been destroyed by saboteurs. News Five’s Patrick Jones reports.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The leaning utility poles are part of a network that carries B.E.L.?s all important power supply from Mexico. But over the weekend, vandals took chainsaws to the crucial infrastructure and almost brought down the entire electricity system.
From their perch at corporate headquarters, technicians were able to see that a problem has developed on the line… but it took aerial surveillance from the Belize Defence Force to assist linesmen in finding the damaged poles in an area behind San Pablo Village.
Oswaldo Cob, Distribution Technician, O.W. Branch
?At the time we found out the damage, the pole over there had already been burned and was already leaning. This one and the other two were already like half way. And due to the immense amount of heat and fire we couldn?t out it immediately. But what helped, what the guys did, or the individual who did this, they use the power saw and cut both sides and put old tires and ignite it. So that caused the poles to burn up quick.?
But while the poles burned, lady luck appeared to have smiled on B.E.L. on Saturday. Technicians note that had the saboteurs? plan worked as designed, the outcome would have been entirely different.
Oswaldo Cob
?It really helped us because if all the three structure were leaning on the same side, all of them would be on the ground. But if you notice one is on this side, the other on this side, so that helped the conductor to maintain an equilibrium on it.?
?We were so lucky, but we still have the poles that are not good. They need to replace them because it?s very dangerous. They could snap at any time and it?s causing strain to the other insulators and so on, on the good poles.?
Patrick Jones
?Saturday?s acts of sabotage are the latest in a series that dates back to January. It?s a headache for technicians of Belize Electricity Limited who have to scramble to remote locations to first locate the problem and begin the process of rehabilitation. Distribution Technician for the Orange Walk branch of B.E.L., Oswaldo Cob, says these acts of sabotage are literally putting the lives of the saboteurs in danger.?
Oswaldo Cob
?Well this is extremely dangerous because of the amount of kilovolts that we have on our transmission line and that the distance they should be within the area of the electromagnetic field of the kilovolts. So whenever they throw that they have to be really good at it that when the swing it they have to like run away as quick as possible so that nothing could touch them. Because this, once the wire is about to reach or has touched there the same voltage applies on the steel wire.?
Patrick Jones
?So conceivable somebody could be electrocuted by doing this??
Oswaldo Cob
?Of course… they are at a high risk while doing this.?
Risk of personal injury to the person stupid enough to try this aside, Corporate Communications Manager Dawn Sampson says everyone suffers when B.E.L.?s infrastructure is damaged.
Dawn Sampson, Corporate Communications Mgr., B.E.L.
?It?s taking a heavy toll on us. Since January we?ve had seventeen acts of sabotage during which twenty of our poles have been damaged. The critical issue here is of course the toll it?s taking on our customers, the inconvenience of extended power outages. We have to order a power outage in order to carry out the repairs to the system. It?s also costly from the point of view that it hinders our efforts to get the cheapest power possible at any given point in time. Right now we?re paying Mexico about twenty-four cents U.S. per kilowatt hour for emergency power and for peak power, compared to the normal six U.S. cents that we are paying. So you see the toll it?s taking on us there.?
And the B.E.L. executive appealed for some common sense.
Dawn Sampson
?With that said, I would really like to appeal to the person or persons carrying out these acts to take this into consideration. And if there is anybody out there who is aware, who knows who might be carrying these out to report it to us or to the nearest police station.?
In the meantime, technicians are preparing for the tedious task of replacing the damaged utility poles.
Oswaldo Cob
?It takes about a day and a half. One day for preparation and another day to complete the replacement of the poles. Additionally, we have to de-energize the system, the main transmission line, and by doing so it does affect the rest of the country; that is from Belize, down south, west. Because this is the main line, main transmission line and while de-energizing that, insufficient generating capacity will of course cause B.E.L. to do some power interruptions to other customers to maintain power getting to Mexico.?
Dawn Sampson
?In January what we saw, the perpetrators were targeting distribution lines in Belize City and then they moved to the transmission lines running from the Mollejon plant. Now we see that they are targeting the transmission lines coming from Mexico. And we?ve actually noticed that they have picked up, they are intensifying their acts of the last two or three weeks. So it?s really been hard on us. And our guys, they are really working hard. They have had to leave their homes at odd hours in the morning to come out and work, so we?re extremely proud of them, they are doing an exceptionally great job.?
Patrick Jones, for News Five.
Work to replace the damaged poles will begin next week, at which time the schedule of rotating blackouts will be announced.
