Hydro plant changes ownership

The Belize Electric Company Limited, better known as BECOL, today has a new owner. The company, which operates the Mollejon Hydro Plant and supplies Belize with the majority of its electrical power, was 95 percent owned by Virginia based Dominion Resources Incorporated. That company has now sold its interest in BECOL to Duke Energy Corporation of North Carolina, the second largest U.S. utility company. Duke also bought the rest of Dominion’s Latin American investments including power projects in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. The price for all the Dominion holdings was four hundred and five million U.S. dollars in cash. Duke has gone on something of a buying spree in recent weeks, having also purchased generating companies in El Salvador and Brazil. It is not known how the sale of BECOL will effect efforts to increase the generating power of the Macal River with the proposed Chalillo Dam Project. Five percent of BECOL’s shares remain in the hands of the Social Security Board.