BEL to Test New Rate System with PUC

Belizeans can breathe a sigh of relief as electricity rates will remain unchanged for the upcoming year. On July first, the Public Utilities Commission issued its Initial Decision on Belize Electricity Limited’s Annual Review Proceeding for July 2026 to June 2027, confirming that current tariffs will stay in place. While BEL had asked to introduce automatic monthly rate changes through a new Cost of Power Adjustment Tariff, the Commission did not grant that request. Instead, the PUC will launch a Regulatory Sandbox, a trial environment where the COPA system can be tested under close supervision. Today, we visited the BEL headquarters in Belize City where the company explained the COPA system and what it means for Belizeans electricity bills. News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.

 

 

Lynn Young, Executive Chairman, Belize Electricity Limited

“The last year the company had some struggles trying to pay CFE, and there were times when CFE actually said: “Listen, if you don’t come up with money, we’re gonna have to disconnect you.”

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

BEL is bleeding millions. The utility reported a net loss of more than twenty-three million dollars in 2025, as power costs swallowed seventy-six percent of its revenue. To ease the pressure, BEL asked the PUC to keep electricity rates unchanged and approve a new Cost of Power Adjustment Tariff, or COPA, which would allow monthly rate changes based on actual power costs. The PUC agreed to hold current tariffs steady, but rejected automatic adjustments for now. Instead, it will test the COPA proposal through a Regulatory Sandbox, with oversight meant to protect consumers and ensure transparency. BEL Executive Chairman Lynn Young explains.

 

 Lynn Young

“The suggestion was to try to smoothen the effect on customers rather than wait a year or two when you’re having to adjust the rates by six cents or five cents or whatever. And so it’s gonna be on a monthly basis that we’ll take a six-month average of the cost of power and compare it to what is in the rates. And let’s say at the rolling six months for the last six months was thirty-two cents per kilowatt hour, then that’s two cents per kilowatt hour more than what’s built into the rates. But this mechanism is gonna limit it at one and a half cents, the adjustment either way, right? So then the customer would get an extra one and a half cents as a cost of power adjustment on the bill.”

 

Young says BEL’s proposed adjustment would come with limits. Any increase under the COPA mechanism would be capped at one point five cents, and customers would not pay additional GST on that increase. BEL is also making this promise: if the cost of power drops, customers should see their bills drop too.

 

Dawn Sampson-Nunez, General Manager, Belize Electricity Limited

“Where there is a decrease in the cost of power, meaning that we pay our power suppliers less than what the PUC approves for the cost of power, that savings would then also be passed on to our customers. So key thing there is making sure that increases in cost of power is passed on in a way that customers could manage the variations. There’s no sharp fluctuations.”

 

Belize has long struggled with the cost and uncertainty of buying electricity from abroad. Now, the country is pushing to produce more of its own power. Two major solar projects are in the pipeline, expected to add ninety-five megawatts to the national grid. Belize is also preparing to acquire two forty-megawatt batteries, which would store energy and provide backup during emergencies or supply disruptions.

 

 Lynn Young

“We are also looking to try to meet with the IPPs, BABCO, Belcogen Santander, to see if there’s a way that we can enhance the in-country generation in the short term. And of course, you know we have some long-term projects in place to bring in grid-connected solar. So we’re taking the steps necessary to try to deal with the short term through the emergency p- power, and then we have this project that will deal with it in the long term.”

 

The company and PUC have yet to determine the scope of the trial, but Young explains that in the six months ahead, BEL expects the COPA system to operate under close oversight, where BEL will submit monthly reports, which the Commission will review before making any necessary adjustments. Britney Gordon for News Five.

 

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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