As Belizean households open their monthly electricity statements this billing cycle, they are confronting an unexpected new surcharge – and the frustrating revelation that two transformative renewable energy initiatives designed to curb long-term energy costs are still trapped in administrative and procedural delays.
Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), the country’s primary power provider, has confirmed that it has been paying far more to procure electricity than it charges end consumers, a cost gap that has swollen to more than four cents per kilowatt-hour over the past six months. To recoup this growing shortfall, the Public Utilities Commission has approved a new Cost of Power Adjustment surcharge, capped at 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is now being passed to customers.
Lynn Young, BEL’s Executive Chairman, explained that the mounting deficit stems from steep, unmanageable costs owed to Mexico’s state power utility CFE, the company’s main cross-border energy supplier. “Over the last year, BEL has faced serious challenges meeting our payment obligations to CFE,” Young stated. “There were multiple points where CFE explicitly warned that service would be disconnected if outstanding payments were not settled.”
The tariff increase has sparked widespread public and political pushback, with critics tying the higher costs to a deepening affordability crisis that has strained household budgets across the country. Union Senator Glenfield Dennison warned that rising essential input costs have left working Belizeans unable to adequately provide for their families. “When we cannot bring down the costs of basic necessities that working people rely on, our country as a whole is put in a vulnerable position,” Dennison argued. “What we need right now is a concrete, actionable plan to address growing poverty in the wake of these increases.”
In response to growing public outcry, Prime Minister John Briceño has instructed Public Utilities Minister Michel Chebat to convene urgent talks with BEL leadership and Public Utilities Commission regulators, followed by a public briefing to outline the government’s path forward. Briceño defended the unavoidable tariff hike, stressing that BEL has been bleeding revenue for months due to exorbitant peak-hour energy purchasing costs. “BEL faces major energy shortfalls during peak usage hours, forcing the utility to buy power at rates as high as one U.S. dollar per kilowatt-hour, then sell it to consumers at just 40 to 42 Belize cents per kilowatt-hour,” Briceño explained. “The government has worked to delay this price increase for as long as possible to protect consumers, but the accumulated deficit could not be absorbed indefinitely. Unfortunately, the adjustment was unavoidable.”
The most frustrating element of the current crisis for many stakeholders is that two large-scale renewable energy projects that would eliminate this long-term cost pressure remain stalled, years after they were first proposed. Briceño confirmed that funding for a large, multi-million-dollar solar initiative backed by Saudi investors was approved rapidly by backers, but bureaucratic red tape has dragged the process out for years. “We moved to secure Saudi funding for this project as soon as we took office, and they approved the loan immediately,” Briceño noted. “But navigating their internal processes takes an extraordinary amount of time, given the scale of their administration and the many competing priorities they manage. We are only just now reaching the point of securing contractors to begin construction on the project.”
A second high-priority initiative, a 40-megawatt energy storage project funded by a $100 million World Bank loan, has been held up by an entirely separate obstacle: an illegal squatter who has occupied the BEL-owned project site in San Pedro for two years, claiming to protect local iguana populations. Briceño called the squatter’s claim a scam, and criticized World Bank bureaucrats based in Washington for halting the entire project over the illegal occupation. “This is not the only critical habitat for iguanas in the region,” Briceño emphasized. “Because nameless Washington bureaucrats refuse to move the project forward over this illegal occupation, we have lost years of progress. If the project had been completed by now, we would already be able to buy low-cost surplus energy from Mexico at off-peak hours, when prices drop to just 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour.”
Despite the current setbacks, Briceño noted that the government’s recent declaration of a national energy emergency could streamline permitting and cut red tape to bring new independent power producers online within 12 months. If achieved, this initiative could save BEL an estimated $28 million annually in energy procurement costs, ultimately reducing pressure on consumer bills. Even so, the Prime Minister acknowledged that meaningful relief for households will take time to materialize, as structural energy challenges in Belize cannot be resolved overnight.