Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has submitted an application to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) under the Full Tariff Review Proceeding (FTRP) for the Full Tariff Period (FTP) starting July 1, 2020 and ending on June 30, 2024 (FTP 2020/2024). The FTRP is a review and subsequent determination by the PUC of the Regulated Values, Mean Electricity Rate (MER), Tariffs, Rates, Charges and Fees applicable for the FTP 2020/2024.
The submission represents BEL’s best forecasts over the FTP. While the current forecasts project increasing costs and a Mean Electricity Rate (MER) of $0.4533 on average over the FTP 2020/2024, the Company’s intention is to maintain the current rates to customers up to December 31, 2020. Thereafter, any favorable variances will be passed through to customers and any unfavorable variances will be mitigated to have minimal impacts on rates going forward.
Over the next five years, the Company plans to invest over $280 million in the national electricity grid to connect to new in-country renewable sources of energy, introduce smart grid technologies to improve the reliability, quality and efficiency of service to customers, and lay the foundation for distributed generation connection and electric vehicles. This represents an increase of over 80% in capital expenditures compared to the investments made in the current FTP ending in June of this year. The planned investments are critical to stabilizing energy cost and improving grid resiliency, which are key to achieving BEL’s mission of delivering safe, reliable and sustainable energy solutions to our customers.
The investments include:
· $47 million to interconnect 70 MW of new indigenous generation sources to the national grid to reduce reliance on CFE and help support the country’s sustainability goals.
· $54 million to connect Caye Caulker to the national grid and to add a second submarine cable to San Pedro, which will bolster reliability and capacity.
· $32 million in smart meter and grid technologies that will improve system reliability improve response to customers and allow for distributed generation integration into the national grid.
· $20 million to install a second transmission line between Dangriga and La Democracia to upgrade transfer capacity to southern Belize.
Other investments are substantially to meet routine system maintenance and improvement requirements.
The FTRP schedule is available at the office of the PUC located at 41 Gabourel Lane, Belize City and BEL’s Corporate Headquarters located at 2½ Miles Phillip Goldson Highway, Belize City.
