Belize Electricity Limited Appeals for Energy Conservation Amid Generation Shortage

Belize Electricity Limited (BEL”) is asking residents to minimize their use of electricity as they work at keeping the lights on.  A message went viral last night at around eight o’clock, asking customers to turn off all unused electrical devices and air conditioners.  According to BEL, the appeal came when they were notified by the Mexico’s Comisión. Federal de Electricidad (CFE) that they were experiencing a generation shortage due to the high demand for power in the Yucatan Peninsula.  Due to that shortage, the CFE had to reduce the amount of power it was supplying to Belize.  That, placed BEL, in a bit of a pickle as it had just over one hundred and seven megawatts of power in-country, and the demand at the time was one hundred and six megawatts.  This afternoon at around two o’clock, BEL issued another public message, explaining that the weather conditions is affecting the demand peak, and the time of that demand.  The peak hours of demand has been declared as 1pm to 3pm and 6pm to 8pm. At 2pm today, BEL noted that the demand for power registered at 117 megawatts.  Our newsroom reached out to BEL for an interview on this situation, but we were told that would happen tomorrow.