Mexico to blame for nationwide blackout
To each of us, whether at work or home, the electrical blackout which struck today was either a minor nuisance or a major interruption in our lives. But what we may not have known as we sat in a dark office or stood over a cold iron, is that the entire northern three-quarters of the nation was without power — for anywhere from one to five hours. The problem, ironically, was a result of progress, that is the interconnection of the Cayo, Stann Creek, Belize, Corozal and Orange Walk Districts into a single electrical grid. That grid could then be fed by a combination of available power sources including the Mollejon hydro, local diesel generators and electricity purchased from Mexico. And that’s where today’s troubles began. At around nine forty five, with over half of Belize’s current being supplied from across the border, the Mexican plug was suddenly pulled. B.E.L.’s engineer Joseph Sukhnandan explains.
Joseph Sukhnandan, Mgr., B.E.L. Transmission/Substations
“It appears that one of the large hydro electric plants at Villahermosa tripped off line. Once that plant trips off line the Mexicans’ automatic system attempted to open circuits to save the system. It appears that in about five minutes they opened approximately twenty circuits to try to compensate for the loss of this large plant. When that did not work the last link that connects to Xul-Ha, which Belize is directly inter-connected, they opened the circuit automatically, the Poly-Uk line to Xul-Ha. Once they opened the Poly-Uk line to Xul-Ha Belize is no longer linked to the central Yucatan grid. But then the Xul-Ha grid became overloaded and in turn that went down and since we were getting about fifty percent of our power from Mexico we lost our link to Xul-Ha. They sent a signal to our circuit which opened and the rest of the Belize system tripped on overload.”
With over half of the country’s power supply suddenly cut off, the Belize grid scrambled to react. Automatic switches tried to isolate the blackouts but these efforts were only partially successful. The West fared best as the hydro plant, even at low capacity, took care of the Cayo District. The Ladyville and Belize City diesel generators overheated when put under the extra pressure and had to cool off before getting Belize City back on line. Parts of San Pedro took a bit longer to restore but it was the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts which suffered most, since their local diesel generators were shut down long ago when the grid was extended to the north. According to B.E.L.’s Chief Executive Lynn Young, the shutdown in Mexico was a rare occurrence which hadn’t happened in over four years. It does demonstrate, however, the need for Belize to become more self sufficient in energy production. Young specifically cited the Chalillo Project to build a small dam on the Macal to increase generation at Mollejon.
Lynn Young, Chief Executive Officer, B.E.L.
“It would have made a big difference. It all depends on how much power Mexico is supplying. But if we had the storage capacity we could have brought on more hydro; we could have been running with more hydro and we would have had a firmer system at home so that when we use the Mexican power supply we are not as susceptible to these kinds of things. And that is definitely one of the links in our strategy — to get that hydro plant firm enough and to get a storage there and then to start looking also at other internal sources where we can perhaps reduce that susceptibility to any problems on the Mexican grid.”
At newstime B.E.L. officials were still not able to say what exactly caused the initial failure in the Mexican system, which also caused a blackout from Merida to Chetumal. The amount of power purchased by B.E.L. from Mexico varies according to the output of Mollejon as well as the time of day.
