BEL explains why Belize went dark Tuesday night

By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): Belize Electricity Limited says an unplanned system collapse caused Tuesday night’s countrywide power outage.

According to BEL, the collapse occurred at 7:28pm following a temporary loss of power from Mexico’s Comisión Federal de Electricidad, due to issues on the Mexican power system.

At the time, available in country generation stood at approximately 103 megawatts while evening peak demand reached 122 megawatts, leaving a shortage of about 19 megawatts.

The sudden loss of a significant portion of supply activated BEL’s grid protection system, which shed load across various parts of the national grid to restore balance. That produced outages in several service areas countrywide until CFE supply was restored at 10:54pm.

BEL says in country generation remains constrained. Certain renewable sources are unavailable due to seasonal conditions, some generating units are out of service for maintenance, and others are operating at reduced capacity.

The company says teams continue to monitor generation and grid conditions.

Updates will be shared through the BEL 24-7 app. Customers can call toll free at 0-800-235-2273.

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