Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), the country’s primary power utility, will move forward with a pilot trial of its proposed dynamic electricity pricing framework after the nation’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) rejected its full request for automatic monthly rate adjustments. In a July 1 Initial Decision ruling on BEL’s 2026-2027 annual tariff review, the PUC confirmed that current residential and commercial electricity rates will remain frozen for the coming 12 months, a move that brings immediate stability to household energy costs across the country.
The decision comes as BEL faces mounting financial pressure driven by volatile imported power costs. In 2025, the utility recorded a net loss exceeding $23 million, with energy procurement costs eating up 76% of its total annual revenue. BEL Executive Chairman Lynn Young revealed that the company faced repeated supply threats last year from Mexico’s state power utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), which at one point warned it would cut off cross-border power supplies over missed payments. To address both its own financial strain and protect consumers from sudden large rate hikes, BEL submitted two key requests to the PUC: to hold base tariffs steady for the coming year, and to approve the new Cost of Power Adjustment Tariff (COPA), a mechanism that would allow automatic monthly rate changes tied directly to fluctuating wholesale energy costs.
While regulators granted the first request to freeze base rates, they opted to test COPA through a tightly monitored regulatory sandbox rather than approve full implementation immediately. Under the proposed framework, BEL will calculate monthly adjustments based on a rolling six-month average of wholesale power costs, compared to the baseline cost already built into current tariffs. Any rate increase or decrease per kilowatt-hour will be capped at 1.5 cents, and no additional goods and services tax will be applied to adjustment charges. BEL executives emphasize that the system is designed to avoid the sharp, unpredictable rate hikes that occur when adjustments are delayed for a year or more, and that any reduction in wholesale costs will be passed directly to consumers.
“When 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,” explained BEL General Manager Dawn Sampson-Nunez. “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.”
The pilot trial comes as Belize works to address long-term energy insecurity tied to its reliance on imported power. Two utility-scale solar projects are currently under development, set to add 95 megawatts of new clean generation capacity to the national grid. The country is also procuring two 40-megawatt energy storage systems to provide backup power during supply disruptions and emergency outages. In the short term, BEL is also in talks with independent power producers including BABCO and Belcogen Santander to expand domestic generation capacity and reduce dependence on imported energy.
Details of the sandbox trial’s scope are still being finalized between BEL and the PUC, but the utility will submit monthly performance reports to regulators for the first six months of the trial, with oversight to ensure consumer protections are maintained and the framework operates transparently.