Residents across Belize are bracing for potential scheduled power disruptions this summer, as the nation’s main electricity provider prepares contingency measures to stabilize the national grid amid looming supply shortfalls from Mexico.
Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) announced this week that controlled, timed power outages will be implemented as a last-resort precaution if Mexico’s state-owned national utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) follows through on its warning of reduced electricity exports to Belize. CFE has notified BEL that growing domestic energy demand across Mexico’s own power network will leave it with less capacity to supply power to neighboring Belize, creating an expected gap in Belize’s available electricity supply starting as early as this month.
To prevent a widespread, unplanned total grid collapse that would leave millions without power for far longer, BEL says controlled rolling load shedding will be carried out between 6:00 p.m. and midnight, when domestic energy demand in Belize peaks. The planned outages are expected to impact residential and commercial areas across six districts: Orange Walk, Corozal, Belize, Cayo, Stann Creek and Toledo.
The looming supply gap comes as BEL works to accelerate long-term efforts to cut Belize’s reliance on imported power. The utility has already opened negotiations with three major independent domestic power producers — BABCO, Belcogen and Santander — to ramp up local generation capacity in the immediate term. For the longer term, BEL is advancing plans to expand grid-connected solar energy generation across the country, which will further reduce dependence on cross-border imports.
In a June 3 interview with local outlet News 5, BEL Executive Chairman Lynn Young outlined the company’s emergency stopgap measure: the deployment of a 20-megawatt temporary generating unit near Mile Eight on the George Price Highway. “We are renting about twenty megawatts of generation that we are putting in place… so that in the event CFE cannot supply, we can meet it,” Young explained in the interview.
Originally, the emergency generation unit was scheduled to arrive in Belize this month. However, global shipping disruptions tied to ongoing international armed conflict have delayed delivery, pushing the expected arrival of the unit to between mid- and late-August. Until the unit is installed and operational, BEL confirms that controlled rolling blackouts will remain the primary contingency to keep the entire national grid stable if CFE cuts export volumes.