A major power outage on Friday, September 26th, affected much of the country, including San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, after a system collapse in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula disrupted Belize’s power supply. On the island, the San Pedro Gas Turbine was immediately brought online at full capacity to keep most of the town powered until the system stabilized. The incident highlighted Belize’s heavy reliance on imported electricity from Mexico.
Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) reported that supply from one of its key providers, Mexico’s Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), was lost during the event. At the time, CFE was supplying 46% of the national load, with the remainder covered by BEL’s Westlake Gas Turbine and the Fortis Belize and Hydro Maya hydroelectric plants. When the Mexican supply dropped, BEL’s grid protection system automatically activated to restore balance, shedding load across several areas of the national grid. Outages were reported countrywide, sparing only Belmopan City, Ladyville, and parts of San Ignacio and the Belize District.
Following the supply loss, both the San Pedro Gas Turbine and the Westlake Gas Turbine on the mainland were activated to meet demand. However, with high national energy needs and limited generation capacity, BEL implemented rotational load shedding until CFE restored the supply at 11:30AM on September 27. During the rotations, most of San Pedro remained with electricity, except for portions of DFC, San Pablo, and Angel Coral Street. Some residents voiced concern about Belize’s dependence on imported power. One resident said, “The government needs to do something fast in case Mexico is unable to provide us with power in the future.”
The San Pedro Gas Turbine, capable of generating 21 megawatts, played a crucial role in keeping the island supplied. The turbine became necessary as the current submarine cable connecting San Pedro to the national grid has reached its 17-megawatt limit. BEL has announced plans to install a second submarine cable to strengthen the island’s long-term energy supply.
BEL explained that the current in-country supply shortage is linked to both seasonal and maintenance factors. Bagasse-based generation is unavailable during the sugar off-season. One unit at the Mollejon hydro dam is under maintenance until mid-October, and one of BAPCOL’s units is indefinitely out of service, while the remaining two are operating at below full capacity.
“For this reason, we continue to work closely with our partners and stakeholders to strengthen Belize’s local generation capacity. While our gas turbines have helped to address immediate needs, the long-term solution must necessarily include utility-scale solar, distributed generation, battery storage, natural gas, and initiatives to promote demand-side management,” BEL said in a statement.
The company continues to encourage customers to practice energy conservation as part of efforts to improve efficiency and manage demand.
