Soaring Power Costs Strain Belizeans as CFE Supply Falters

Now, sticking with energy, Prime Minister Briceño dropped a bit of a bombshell this week. Belize is in hot water with Mexico’s CFE, the company that supplies a big chunk of our electricity. But here’s the real shocker, during peak hours, we’re paying up to one U.S. dollar per kilowatt. That’s steep by any standard. So, what’s the way forward? Could plugging into the Central American grid be the lifeline Belize needs to ease its energy burden?

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“We are in trouble right now with Mexico, as much as you might not want to accept it, we are in trouble. And BEL is very, very concerned. When the heat is on, they take advantage of us. They raise that price to one U.S. dollar a kilowatt. And so now here comes a company that says, you know, we could provide a base load. Now they are looking long-term, the base load is just fifty kilo megawatts. Their idea is having the natural gas, because eventually we are working towards connecting to the Central American grid and the agreement we have with Mexico is that we can not only buy but only sell, and if they can continue to have problems, we can sell to them. So, their vision is long term, and the fifty megawatts can provide the security we need.  So, what we have done is we have signed a non-binding MOU that we have taken to cabinet, which we have approved. We have discussed it with BEL. And so, PUC and all of them are in favor for us to have the discussion to see what price we can get that is affordable, but also can give us that load base, that security that we need desperately more than ever.”