B.E.L. reports shortfall in electricity production

The Belize Electricity Limited has reported the implementation of a program of controlled blackouts that will be carried out over the next couple of days. A company press release says the move is necessary to make up for an unexpected shortfall in electricity production. According to the release, the problem started last week when one of the generators at B.E.L.’s Magazine Road Generating Plant broke down, significantly reducing the available load capacity. The company took emergency measures by asking big businesses on its power system to switch to their own standby generators. But the situation worsened over the weekend when the level of the Macal River fell unexpectedly low, reducing the generating capacity of the Mollejon Hydro Electric Plant. A B.E.L. spokesman says that the blackouts, which will occur only during the day, should last for no longer than five hours at any given time and that the problem is expected to be corrected by early next week.