PM Speaks on B.E.L Measures to Address Power Issues
Recent power outages caused by C.F.E. being overwhelmed by greater supply demands in Mexico is an increasing concern for Belizeans. But all is not lost for Belize and its growing power demands. Today the Prime Minister briefed the media on a couple of short-term measures that Belize Electricity Limited will undertake to be a little more self-sufficient.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“The shortage of, well, the drought, the water in the dam has been going down very low, so hopefully it’s starting to rain, hopefully I start getting more water. We had the, Bowen and Bowen Group, their plant down south, two of their plants got struck by lightning. One has been fixed already and now the next one is coming on board. We had a record heat wave hitting the entire Central America and Mexico, and so the consumption of electricity went through the roof in Belize and in Mexico. So they were telling us, listen, if we continue like this, we may have to cut you because we’re not going to cut Belize. So, what is it that we’re doing? Well, BEL has already agreed to buy two mobile generators. One will go to Ambergris Caye and the other one, I’m not sure if it’s going to be for Belize City or where exactly they’re going to have that. The generators down south – one has been repaired and the other one should come online any time now. Again, Bowen and Bowen won a contract or a bid in around 2016 or 2017 with the PUC to set up a solar plant up north. We sat down with the PUC – myself and the Minister of Energy. I’m telling you, we have to get this plant going very quickly, and so now they’re sitting down once again because I think the figure that they were providing to the investors, myself, I don’t think it’s a reasonable price. So they are sitting down looking at the numbers together with the investors, and I’m hoping before the end of the month, they’ll have an agreement so they could start building that one. We are also looking at how we can do a little bit of deregulation of the providing of energy. We want BEL to concentrate in the distribution of energy and then we have to encourage because there’s a lot of interest in putting solar plants in Belize.”
