Locally Sourced Generation Unit Supplying Caye Caulker

On Friday, B.E.L.’s Chief Executive Officer John Mencias, at a stakeholders meeting organized by the Belize Tourism Board, promised residents and proprietors on Caye Caulker that a locally sourced generation unit was on its way to the island. The island had been without light and potable water for days prompting a crisis that led to the exit of tourists.   The piece of heavy duty equipment arrived in one piece and on Sunday it was successfully connected to the island’s power system.  Since being brought online, B.E.L.’s technicians have been monitoring and assessing the unit’s generation capacity and will continue to do so during the week to ensure that it functions properly.

John Mencias

John Mencias, C.E.O., Belize Electricity Ltd.

“We have located a gen set from Aqua Mar down in southern Belize and that gen set will be on its way to Caye Caulker this afternoon.  It should reach here tonight; however, that’s bringing the gen set to Caye Caulker.  We have to now attach that on to the local distribution system and we hope to have that in place by Monday.  So we still have to deal with the weekend load because Caye Caulker is different from, well Caye Caulker and San Pedro are different from what we are used to on the mainland where the peak load seems to be one: around two o’clock during the day and during the weekday, as opposed to Caye Caulker and San Pedro where the peak loads tend to be at night and during the weekend.  And in fact, that is what totally caught us off guard for Lobster Fest because in Belize City, for example, you’re dealing with a population of seventy thousand people and at any one time maybe you have twenty thousand more descending on Belize City, while in Caye Caulker it’s the opposite way.  You have a small population base and when all the Belize City people and tourists come here probably, I don’t know, you probably double the amount of people you have here, especially usage of A/Cs and so on in the resorts.”