BEL Steps Up Contingency Plans as BAPCOL Declares Extended Unavailability of Their Power Plant

Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) is stepping up contingency measures to mitigate possible disruptions in the supply of electricity to our Customers that could occur during the remainder of this month.
Unprecedented hot and humid weather interspersed with isolated lightning and thunder storms in the late evenings have continued through to this week, causing unprecedented high levels of electricity usage overall and supply disruptions in certain parts of the system.
Unfortunately, the Blair Athol Power Company Limited (Bapcol) has now declared that their power plant will be unavailable for an extended period of time to carry out urgent maintenance on their generating units. This means that if supply is lost from CFE (Mexico) or the Fortis Belize hydro plants during the time Bapcol is unavailable, BEL will not be able to meet the demand for electricity in all service areas, especially during the early afternoons and in the nighttime, and Customers in the affected service areas will experience service interruptions. Moreover, critical repairs to the segment of the transmission line that connects CFE to BEL’s central substation at Mile 8 on the George Price Highway will have to remain on hold until Bapcol is brought back online.
BEL assures our Customers that we are working arduously and in collaboration with Bapcol and all our bulk power suppliers to address the shortage of in-country generation. We are also asking Customers to assist us by practicing energy conservation, where possible, in order to alleviate excess demand for electricity.
In the meantime, BEL continues to implement its longer term plan to bolster system capacity and reliability and build a modern energy services infrastructure, by increasing in-country renewable energy generation, deploying battery storage solutions in strategic locations throughout the country, installing new transmission and substations, and modernizing our distribution network. The timely execution of this expansion plan is critical to achieving our Mission of delivering safe, reliable, and sustainable energy solutions to our Customers and to support the growth and development of our country, Belize, now and into the future.