BEL to install new insulators country-wide

Apart from its generation limitations, BEL’s grid is under constant pressure as it continues to battle with constant damage to its infrastructure. According to BEL, the contamination of insulators is responsible for 25 % of the recent power outages, particularly in the Corozal District and the Ladyville area. The pieces of equipment become covered in dust and overheat, which leads to them catching fire. To remedy the issue, Karique Marin, BEL’s Manager of Distribution Planning & Engineering, explained that commencing on Saturday crews will be out cleaning and replacing insulators across the country. 

Karique Marin, Manager of Distribution Planning and Engineering: “While we’re going through generation issues we are also managing the operation of the grid. With climate change what has happened is the grid is under stress and what we have realized is we’ve had a lot of fires both bush fires and pole top fires which caused due to the impact of dust on our insulators. Our intentions is to change these insulators to better quality insulators that are able ot deal with dust and these contamination issues. So the idea is we are working through the generation issues but at the same time trying to do critical maintenance on our grid to ensure the impact of climate change, the impact of dust and contamination, is reduced.”

BEL says that wildfires are also causing transmitters to catch fire and fail in Corozal and Orange Walk, which shuts off the power supply from Mexico.