Additional locally-sourced generation unit is in Caye Caulker

Published by BBN Staff at January 5, 2020

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Posted: Sunday, January 5, 2020. 7:24 am CST.

By Aaron Humes: Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) is currently working on a generation unit to keep the island of Caye Caulker powered starting on Monday while waiting on a new unit from the United States as well as a key part for the failed unit.

Through social media, BEL said yesterday afternoon that it brought in the used unit from Independence, Stann Creek and are working to connect it to the Caye Caulker power system. Estimated time of operation is Monday, January 6, after which a period of assessment is needed to determine how much it can be relied on for demand until the new generation unit being sourced from abroad can be installed at the power station.

The power company says it is a fairly used generation unit but was the only one of sufficient capacity that was readily available in-country.

La Isla Cariñosa has been suffering from a combination of intermittent power outages and water rationing since the end of December, after a key part at BWS’ plant failed and they could not get a replacement on time, and then the same happened for BEL.

BEL has a temporary fix for their problem. They want to repair the failing diesel generation unit, retrieve a second that’s in-country (which has now happened), and acquire an upgrade that should arrive within 3 to 4 weeks. These will act as backups to the 3 units that are currently supplying the island. In the long term, there are plans to connect the island to the national grid through sister island Ambergris Caye.

The state-run company thanked customers in Caye Caulker for their continued support and participation in using energy sparingly during peak hours which helped to maintain the continuous power supply to all customers since Thursday, January 2.

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