BEL Conducts Necessary Maintenance and Replaces Infrastructure

 

    An armada of BEL workers invaded the island over the weekend as a scheduled power outage took place on Sunday morning in order for the Belize Electricity Limited linesmen to conduct necessary maintenance and replace infrastructure at the San Pedro and Maskall Substations.

    All of San Pedro was without power from 6:30am to about 2:15pm on Sunday, October 3, although the outage was scheduled only to midday. Fortunately a cool northerly breeze was blowing and the day was bright and beautiful – not too uncomfortable for a power outage. 

Work Continues in North Ambergris

    BEL is also commencing a project to rebuild the distribution system in the North San Pedro area from Boca del Rio to Costa Maya. The aging infrastructure in this area has caused several power failures over the years, which have been of great inconvenience to their customers. BEL says that once they have completed this project, the frequency of power outages will be reduced and the quality of power supply improved, as the integrity of the system will be restored.

    As this project gets underway, area residents and property owners are advised that the Company will be carrying out construction activities in the area, which will include land clearing along the power line path and installation of supporting infrastructure. BEL says that it will maintain open communication with property owners to ensure that they are kept informed of work progress.

 

Intermittent Power Outages Countrywide

Scheduled Outages for San Pedro

Intermittent power outages were experienced countrywide between 8:14 p.m. and 9:48 p.m. on Friday, April 16, 2010 following several trips on the national grid. Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has since identified the cause of those trips as a broken insulator on the 115 kV transmission line between the Maskall substation in the Belize District and the Buena Vista Substation in the Corozal District.

BEL work crews are currently carrying out repairs to the damaged infrastructure. As a result, the Northern Zone, which includes the entire Orange Walk District, Corozal District and San Pedro Town, will experience a 30-minute power outage at about 2:00 p.m. today, upon completion of works.

Scheduled Outages for San Pedro:

* Tuesday, April 20 - from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon. Areas to be affected: All that area including Angel Coral Street, Coconut Drive, Sea Grape Drive, San Marcos Area, DFC Area, Escalante Subdivision, Holiday Lands and Boca Ciega Area.

* From 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Areas to be affected: All of Barrier Reef Drive, Angel Coral Drive, San Marcos Area, DFC Area and a portion of Sea Grape Drive.

* Wednesday, April 21 - from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon. Areas to be affected: All that area from Laguna Drive to Boca del Rio including North San Pedro and Pescador Drive.

BEL apologizes for any inconvenience caused by these outages and assures customers that the Company continues to work diligently at minimizing interruptions. These outages are necessary for the company to carry out maintenance works on the distribution system in the area.

What’s Up with All the Power Outages?

Since Wednesday, April 14, San Pedro has been having frequent power outages that have been frustrating customers. The longest of those outages occurred during the early hours of Wednesday morning at about 1:00a.m. and lasted until 5:00a.m. The Belize Electricity Ltd. says that power was lost on the island following a trip on the transmission system. BEL work crews were dispatched to investigate the cause of the unplanned power outage, which still remains unknown.

Still on Wednesday, April 14, at 9:40 a.m. another unplanned power outage affected the entire island when a bird, which came in contact with a section of the distribution line, caused a trip on the system. Power was restored to all sections of the island by 10:10 a.m. Shorter outages followed during the day. A press release says that BEL apologizes for any inconvenience caused by these outages.

Today, Thursday, April 15, another power outage occurred at 9:55a.m., but this time it was a countrywide outage that BEL says was caused due to a burnt crossarm on a transmission line between Mexico and Orange Walk District. San Pedro power was restored at about 11:30a.m. and BEL says that all areas in the country are to be restored by 12:30p.m.

The Company reminds the public that it is offering a reward of $1,000 for any information leading to the arrest of persons involved in acts of sabotage on the Company’s power system. Such acts resulted in extended power outages last month. These criminal activities may result in damage to customers’ electrical equipment and perpetrators also put their safety at risk as they could be seriously injured or electrocuted.

Scheduled Power Outages for Weekend

Belize Electricity Limited advises its customers in San Pedro Town that the supply of electricity will be temporarily interrupted over the weekend during the following dates and times:

*Saturday, July 25, from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon - Areas to be affected: Angel Coral Street, Coconut Drive, Sea Grape Drive, Holiday Land, Mosquito Coast and Boca Ciega.

*Sunday, July 26, 2009, all of Barrier Reef Drive from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Vehicular traffic will be restricted on all of Barrier Reef Drive while the Company conducts works to upgrade the distribution system in the area. BEL recommends that pedestrians avoid the area during this time. Pedestrians who may need to traffic the area are asked to exercise extreme caution.

BEL Says Enough Power Supply at the Moment

Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) has sent out a press release stating that it currently has sufficient generation in place to meet the country’s energy demand over the next few days. Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) advised that following the inspection of the Merida III generating unit, they have determined that the unit needs to be taken out of service until the middle of August. In the meantime, CFE is able to supply Belize with approximately 15 per cent of its energy demand. However, the cost of power from CFE at this time is much higher than normal and BEL will only take power from CFE as a last option.

In addition to CFE, BEL is currently taking approximately 16 megawatts (MW) of power from Belize Aquaculture Limited and 32.5 MW from Belize Electric Company Limited. Hydro Maya remains off line, while repairs are being carried out to its generating equipment. The nozzle and the tools for the repairs to the Gas Turbine have arrived and BEL plans to complete works on the Gas Turbine by July 24, 2009.If any planned power outages are necessary, BEL will provide customers with advanced notice, where possible.

Power Crisis! Weekend Outages Scheduled

Belize’s Public Utilities Commission has warned consumers of electricity to brace for more frequent and perhaps more prolonged power outages in the weeks ahead. The primary cause of the problem is the break-off of supply from Mexico, from the Comisión Federal de Electricidad. But adding to the crisis is the failure of the BEL Gas Turbine plant at Mile 8 to produce power to relieve the emergency.

Here on Ambergris Caye, we already see an arsenal of portable generators already up and running behind the old BEL power plant. We only hope that these will be enough to sustain power on the island and not cause multiple power outages, as these can be detrimental to our tourism industry that is already in “slow motion”.

Already announced for this weekend are scheduled power outages for Saturday and Sunday:

Saturday, July 18, 2009 will be Feeder 1 which is all of Barrier Reef Dr. This will commence at 6:00am until 12:00Noon

Sunday, July 19, 2009 will be Feeder 4 which is all of Angel Coral Dr from Hol Chan Office, Coconut Dr., to the end of the line @ Boca Ciega. This will commence at 6:00am until 12:00Noon

Portable generators set up behind BEL Power Plant

BEL Says More Power Outages to Come

Over the weekend, there were a number of power outages that had to be endured and according to Belize Electricity Limited, bad weather and equipment maintenance is to blame. On Friday night the power went out countrywide and it was due in part to a ground wire that broke away from a pole near the Buena Vista Substation and caused a fault on the transmission line between Mexico and Belize. The outage was extended because the Gas Turbine is currently out of service for maintenance for two weeks.

A release from BEL says that because the Gas Turbine was out of service the restoration had to be coordinated with Belize Electric Company Limited and Belize Aquaculture Limited. Hydro Maya Limited has also informed BEL that their generating equipment has suffered damage due to a mechanical failure and consequently will be out of service while the repairs are being completed.

On Sunday Belize City lost power around 2:30pm due to a lightning arrestor failure. The arrestor was replaced and power was restored shortly before five thirty. Other power outages were reported on Sunday night and Monday along the Western and Southern Highway. To make matters worse, CFE had limited the supply to BEL so as to complete repairs to their system. Those restoration works at CFE were supposed to be completed within three months. However, BEL has been informed that CFE continues to experience generation problems and will have to take out another one of their large generators for maintenance. BEL says that this can worsen the current power supply situation, which is already critical but they will keep the public informed of any further developments.

Scheduled Weekend Power Outages

Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) would like to advise its customers of the following scheduled power outages that will be taking place this weekend July 11 & 12 and next weekend July 18 & 19, 2009.

*Saturday, July 11, 2009 will be Feeder 3 this is all of Boca Del Rio (starting from Harmouch Center) to North Ambergris all the way to Tranquility Bay.
It will commence at 6:00am until 2:00pm
*Sunday, July 12, 2009 will be Feeder 2 this is from Harmouch Center all of Pescador Dr and all area up to Maya Island Air Terminal inclusive San Pedrito Subdivision, extends to Blake St., San Pablo Subdivision, Escalante Subdivision. This will commence at 6:00am until 12:00Noon
*Saturday, July 18, 2009 will be Feeder 1 which is all of Barrier Reef Dr. This will commence at 6:00am until 12:00Noon
*Sunday, July 19, 2009 will be Feeder 4 which is all of Angel Coral Dr from Hol Chan Office, Coconut Dr., to the end of the line @ Boca Ciega. This will commence at 6:00am until 12:00Noon