Several Communities to Be Connected to a Micro Grid

Three far-flung villages in southern Belize that are too remote to be electrified will be connected to a micro-grid managed by Belize Electricity Limited. Those communities are among the first that the Ministry of Public Utilities and B.E.L are collaborating with to get connected to micro-grids as part of a larger project that will see other areas in the north also enjoy a similar service. News Five spoke with the Minister of Public Utilities on Thursday and he shared that the new project will enable quite a number of families in these isolated areas to have electricity as early as next month.

Michel Chebat

Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities

“The reason we’ve gone with a micro-grid – it is a smaller grid – as is described – but the reason we do that is because of the distance of these communities. It is difficult for B.E.L. to get into these areas. So we’ve opted for a micro-grid, which is solar. And we’ll be providing over four hundred households with electricity. We anticipate that this project will be launched by the first week of November of this year. So that’s a really big project for us and we expect it to bring not only the fact of electricity, but with that comes so many more economic benefits to the community. Obviously the kids who reside in those communities will now have greater access to the electricity, to the Internet and so forth, so it will enhance their educational experience.   We’re working on additional micro-grids and we expect that we’ll have additional communities in Toledo and some in Orange Walk where we’re going to be putting these micro-grids. So the intention is that within this five-year period, we get as much of our rural communities with electricity as quickly as possible. We’re now in the twenty-first century, and it is time that our communities have access to electricity.”