San Pedro still experiencing blackouts

San Pedro residents also continue to be without power for large portions of time due to repairs to their system. While the blackouts are inconvenient, C.E.O. of Belize Electricity Limited, Lynn Young tells News Five the outages are necessary so that the line insulators can be changed. He says that while there have been some unexpected losses of power due to weather, most of the time the outages are scheduled and the public is notified. Dust from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye streets and salt from the sea breeze regularly coat the insulators and cause sparking and the tripping of circuits. The problems began when the island was taken off its diesel generators and connected directly to the mainland and the entire distribution system was upgraded to 22 thousand volts. B.E.L. admits that they should have spent more time testing the new system, but are working hard to rectify the problem.