BEL Explains Higher Electricity Bills Amid $30 Million Debt to Mexican Power Supplier

On Monday, August 24th, Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) addressed concerns over recent increases in electricity bills, attributing much of the higher consumption to increased temperatures associated with the dry season. BEL Executive Chairman Lynn Young explained that appliances and electronic devices consume more energy during hotter weather. Meanwhile, the company disclosed that it owes approximately $30 million to Mexican power supplier Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE).
Young explained that electricity consumption typically increases significantly around May, June, and July. “It increases because when the dry season kicks in and the heat kicks in, a lot of electrical equipment uses electricity significantly more. Refrigerators, it’s a heat pump basically; it’s pumping air out to get the air in the refrigerator cool, same thing with AC,” he explained. “So, what happens is that your ACs and refrigerators burn far more electricity when it’s hot. But not only those, there are other equipment that also burns more electricity when it’s hot.”
Young also addressed concerns from customers who reported higher bills despite making no significant changes to their electricity use. “A lot of us, including myself, we are not at home, but we find our bills are going up. But things like the fans in our computer, in our router, all this equipment when the outside temperature is hot, they have internal fans that just kick in to keep the equipment cool,” he explained.
Young also dismissed suggestions that new meters installed under BEL’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) are malfunctioning. “The electronic meters are accurate between 1.5% plus or minus, whereas the old meters have an accuracy between minus and plus 3%, so they’re more accurate to start with,” Young said. “When we change an old meter for a new meter, we realize, yes, some people may be getting a more accurate reading.”
Young said BEL will investigate individual cases when customers complain about unusually high bills to determine the source of the increase. According to him, most cases are linked to increased consumption. He added that BEL can offer payment arrangements to customers experiencing difficulties paying their electricity bills.
BEL Owes CFE $30 Million
BEL also disclosed that it owes the Mexican power supplier, Comisión Federal de Electricidad, approximately $30 million. According to Young, the company continues to experience millions of dollars in losses annually. CFE typically supplies up to 55 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Belize’s national grid. With national electricity demand recently ranging from 85MW to 125MW, local generation capacity is estimated at 84MW to 95MW. When CFE is unable to supply Belize, BEL may temporarily disconnect power in selected areas to stabilize the national grid.
“The Government in the last couple of years did not want to see any increases in rates and has been helping the company to meet some of these costs. We have to keep the lights on, that is for sure, so to the extent we have to do that, the Government continues to help,” Young explained.
He added that the recently announced Cost of Power Adjustment (COPA) of 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour on August 2026 electricity bills will help offset higher power costs. “But the most important thing is for us to get the cost down, and we have some initiatives that we feel pretty certain within the next year or two it will come down,” Young said. He did not provide a specific timeline, but indicated that costs could remain elevated until those initiatives take effect or international oil prices decline.
Meanwhile, Minister of Energy Honorable Michel Chebat suggested that savings from government programs, including free education and the expansion of the National Health Insurance (NHI) program, could help households manage other expenses, including higher electricity costs. “What we are hoping is that when our citizens do not have to pay the cost of these things, they are going to have [funds] to pay other things they are facing with,” Chebat said.