San Pedro Hit by Power Outage Amid BEL Technical Woes: Tourism Concerns Rise

San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, experienced an unplanned power outage this morning due to technical problems encountered by Belize Electricity Limited (BEL). The outage occurred around ten-twenty, and BEL explained that there was a failure within a major component in a transformer at its Maskall substation. BEL also noted that its technical staff had managed to intervene before the situation worsened. However, resolving the issue could take some time, leaving one of the biggest tourist destinations in the country without power for the whole day and well into the night. This comes at a time when BEL has been experiencing shortages in power due to CFE Mexico curtailing its supply to outside customers. Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Relations, Anthony Mahler, says that the issue of recurring blackouts is a concern for the tourism industry, especially during the high season. He noted that possible solutions are being discussed in Cabinet and with CFE Mexico.

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism: “It is problematic for us but we had a discussion in Cabinet yesterday about it and BEL is working feverishly to try to rectify the situation. It’s not the best situation. We’re still in the high season right now per se. We believe we’ll get solutions implemented pretty soon. We’re talking to Mexico as well and so hopefully this can be rectified sooner rather than later.”

This evening, BEL issued a public notice that it would be transporting mobile substation equipment from BEL’s Westlake Facility, located at Mile 8 George Price Highway, to the Maskall Substation.