No Electric

CFE UNABLE TO PROVIDE BEL
WITH FIRM ENERGY

Belize Electricity Limited says it is working to secure sufficient energy supply to meet the country’s peak demand of over 74 megawatts after the company received a notice from Comision Federal de Electricidad of Mexico that it will not be able to supply BEL with firm energy for the next four months beginning May 8.
BEL says during the dry season it purchases as much as 43 megawatts of firm capacity from CFE.
BEL says in its notice CFE explained that damage to major generating equipment in central Campeche following the total system outage yesterday has severely limited its capacity to provide firm energy to the Yucatan Peninsula which has forced that company to suspend the firm energy supplied to BEL. This damage was responsible for a national power outage in Belize.
BEL says it currently sources power from hydroelectricity, the West Lake Generating facility, diesel generating plants in Belmopan and Caye Caulker and from mobile units. BEL goes on to say that since hydroelectric production is less than it is in the rainy season, BEL will continue to use local generation sources efficiently to minimize possible power outages. BEL ends its release by encouraging customers to continue practicing energy conservation.
What the heck does this mean,cut us off in 5 Days.
This is what I woke up to on May 1st, (crap power just went out 3:26 afternoon). Upload now!
We get our power from Mexico, they can produce it cheaper. We actually have a power line that travels threw Belize, then to island under water to this location for disbursement. We used to generate our power hear on island with a huge generator, which is now out of commission.
The old days we could watch the voltage changes by looking at a light bulb. We used to joke about it all the time. when the power would go out my buddy Charlie from Estels would say" GREAT,look at the money we are saving ". Here in the Caribbean your sense of humor can be your most valuable asset.
Well I was not laughing when I heard the news. Immediately kicked into assessment mode, 5 days left. I started networking, fortunately we have a friend with in the company that gave us the poop- scoop. After the conversation we were relieved to find out they are not turning us off, completely. We still decided to upgrade our generator, these days it does n't matter where you live the states or here a generator is nice to have.
What happened was Belize had worked out a contract at a nice price for power from Mexico. I forget some of the terms, in a nut shell. They did not have a contract for FIRM power, they were selling us power from a hydro power which relies on mother nature like, wind . They had problems supplying power to their country during peak hours. They also burned up some of their equipment which now, needed replacing. They agreed to sell what they could .
Our electric infrastructure is basically new,but we were not generating power much anymore. My question was could Belize do it.? Could Belize generate power to supply threw out the country? We would not know until they threw the switch.
Having Mexico provide power is a great option.Living in small countries in the Caribbean struggle at times to provide consistent utilities. Mexico is a huge country and they had to make that great investment in power plants. They can produce it cheaper with a better consistency.
Living in St. Croix (U.S.V.I.) , you would think would be better, it wasn't. Outages were something we lived with,one every other week 4-6 hours, no warning . It is not easy to produce electricity effectively for a small Country like Belize or a island.Being next to Mexico has been a true blessing,I have not realized this till now. YES, Belize Electric did it, we can generate our own power if we ever need to for lengths of time. Little inconveniences considering, but; well worth that clean regulated voltage power. Please see note on fridge(off),we would use this to keep track. The power would go off in the morning((5 min) at 8 am (Which is 9 am Mexico) peak time. Belize would then switch to their gen. systems and run till 4pm our time (5pm Mexico time) then switch over again(5 min).
I am so happy we have good infrastructure,always thought we did.
Belize passes the test,keep up the good work B.E.L.
Tina and I took Jason and Ti for a beautiful Sunset.This was the best it got last night, bummer.
We had a great boat ride, conversation and drinks. Jason and Ti we dedicate this pic below taken the night before to you both, enjoy the sunset. Luv ya T&T