BEL Warns of Shortfall as Consumers Endure Outages
For thousands of Belizeans, the power supply emergency is no longer just a warning about what could happen. It is already disrupting daily life. Communities across the country are losing electricity for hours at a time, leaving people who work from home unable to do their jobs, students struggling to finish assignments and families searching for relief from the sweltering heat. BEL says it is preparing for a projected power shortfall, but many consumers want to know why the blackouts are happening now and who is responsible. The Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Public Utilities explains what is driving the latest round of load shedding.
Leroy Almendarez
Dr. Leroy Almendarez, CEO, Ministry of Public Utilities
“Some people say well blame Mexico. I don’t believe you blame Mexico, because if the situation had been corrected already then Mexico becomes a backup. So, the situation with BEL in this case, when the demand increases to a certain extent, BEL does not have the domestic resources. So, if you add domestic, plus Mexico and it can add that total demand then that is fine. But sometimes if Mexico says it is zero, I don’t have any power to give to you, BEL does not have the reserves that it can make up for that, the immediate, when you see countries go blackout immediately, that is to avert, that is to avert instability of the grid. Why, because if the demand at that time is a hundred and thirty megawatts but all BEL has is a hundred and twenty megawatts, you can’t meet that demand. There is a defect of ten. So, that can create instability. So, when they talk load shedding you have to decide this is what we have. You have to redistribute it. The load shedding means we have to rotate, because this is what I have available.”
CEO Almendarez says BEL’s load-shedding schedule considers several factors, including the location of critical services such as hospitals and schools, as the company warns of possible outages tonight and into tomorrow.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
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