Tag: 2024-05-03

Scheduled power interruptions continued today, as B.E.L. attempts to get a handle on a countrywide energy crunch.  On Thursday, Chief Executive Officer John Mencias held a press conference to fully explain the situation that the country is presently faced with.  According to the C.E.O., an interim solution is the use of gas turbines outside of Belize City and in San Pedro.  But is that temporary fix cost effective and environmentally friendly?  Tonight, we’ll look at the gas turbine alternative and what it means for additional energy being sent to the national grid to make up for the existing shortfall.  Here’s News Five’s Isani Cayetano.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Belize remains in the throes of a major energy crisis, as the demand for electricity exceeds the available supply in the country.  This is resulting in a significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to the local economy.  This predicament has been brought about in part by excessive use of energy without adequate measures for conservation and efficiency.  It is also triggered by limited energy resources.  At two o’clock this afternoon, parts of Belize City were cut off, as load shedding continues.  It happened at a time when there a considerable increase in consumption.

Omereyon Fregene, Manager of Energy Supply, B.E.L.

“Peak energy supply is really capacity.  At certain times of the day, depending on the times of the year, our customers coincidentally all require a certain capacity during that time interval.  So peak capacity is when, for example, in Belize, at two p.m., in the afternoon, children are returning back from school, office workers are returning back from lunch.  So you have that sudden rush, an increase in capacity that is required.  It is not consistent, it’s for short intervals, but BEL has to make sure that that capacity is available when our customers need it.”

…and the utility company is unable to do so.  Blackouts continue as Belize Electricity Ltd. seeks to address the problem.  Doing so, as a long-term solution, involves a combination of increasing energy production, improving energy efficiency, and promoting conservation efforts.  In the interim, BEL is looking to bring online a gas turbine that is located in the West Lake community.

John Mencias, C.E.O., Belize Electricity Ltd.

“Immediately, what we have in place is that we are upgrading our gas turbine, as I said, at mile eight, and that is expected to come back online by early next week.  It was originally at nineteen megawatts, it’s being upgraded to thirty megawatts.  So next week, thirty megawatts of additional capacity is coming online.  Once that comes online, we will be able to bridge the generation shortage that we are experiencing right now.”

A gas turbine is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine.

Mario Vellos, Supt. Operations, Belize Electricity Ltd.

“The gas turbine is basically an aircraft engine, it was derived from the aero industry and it uses diesel fuel to burn, mixed with air and that drives the gas turbine.  The gas turbine, in turn, drives the generator.  The generator is synchronized onto the grid and power is produced to the grid. This plant, when we bought this plant, we bought twenty megawatts of power but in it better days we’ve seen up to twenty-two megawatts of power from this gas turbine.  That would represent close to or maybe one-fifth of our grid right now, one-fifth of the total power of this grid.”

According to Chief Executive Officer John Mencias, BEL will also be installing a gas turbine in San Pedro in a few weeks.

John Mencias

“And then, by the end of May we’ll be adding another twenty megawatts of capacity gas turbine in San Pedro.  So that means that by the end of May, compared to where we are now, we’re putting back, or we’re installing on the grid, fifty megawatts of additional capacity.  That will put us in a position to be able to meet peak demand well beyond the next twelve months, and more than likely up to about eighteen months.”

It’s an interim solution that’s very costly.  Gas turbines run on diesel, lots of it.  In speaking with Mario Vellos, Superintendent of Operations at BEL, he gave us an idea of just how much fossil fuel is consumed when the gas turbine is in use.

Isani Cayetano

“This, I believe, consumes a lot of fuel to run.  Explain that to us, perhaps relative to any other source of electricity that’s being brought on to the grid.”

Mario Vellos

“This turbine when running at full load, this would consume, to make it simple, like twenty-five gallons of fuel per minute at full load.  So you can calculate that in an hour to see how much fuel we use in one hour.  I think, for a day, depending on how we run the unit, we can burn up to thirty thousand gallons of fuel.”

All that fuel consumption will not come cheap.

John Mencias

“There is a very important implication to putting in place these gas turbines.  These gas turbines will help us to overcome the current capacity shortage that we have, but they burn diesel.  And to put that in perspective for you, just the cost of the diesel, of running the machines on diesel, per kilowatt hour, ranges between forty-five cents to about sixty cents, sometimes higher.  You all know what is the price of electricity, right?  Pre-tax, the average price is about forty cents.  So when we’re running those gas turbines, we’re already losing money.  There is a net difference of about anywhere from twenty cents to up to thirty cents or more.”

That difference will inevitably create an entirely new challenge for the already overwhelmed company.

John Mencias

“What does that do?  It pushes up the cost of power.  We have to find cash to pay for the fuel, for the additional cost of power and that cash is important for the investments that we need to make in reinforcing, and extending, and strengthening our transmission system.  That cash is important to put a second transformer up at Maskall, for putting additional transformers throughout the country.  It’s important actually, we need that cash to be able to install the second submarine cable to San Pedro.”

Isani Cayetano for News Five.

It will be another three weeks before the Belize Electricity Limited will be able to install a gas turbine capable enough to meet San Pedro’s increasing power demands. Earlier this week, the island town experienced two major power outages, and later suffered a third which lasted only two hours. According to Belize Rural South Area Representative Andre Perez, that last interruption was caused by a technical glitch on the island itself. He also said that the spate of blackouts in San Pedro has delivered a blow to the businesses that depend on power supply. News Five’s Marion Ali visited San Pedro today to get an idea of how the interruption of power supply has impacted the flow of business there. Here’s that report.

Ciani Castaneda, Nurse, San Carlos Medical Clinic

“For our medication that needs to be kept cool, we use the ice bags, so we can put them in a cooler and then keep them there to maintain its temperature that’s how it’s supposed to be kept.”

Marion Ali, Reporting

The series of power outages in San Pedro have forced businesses to return to days gone by, when electricity supply did not exist, and they had to find creative ways of keeping their perishable stocks and supplies cold. Nurse Ciani Castaneda shared with News Five that the interruptions in power supply have forced the staff at San Carlos Medical Clinic to resort to twentieth century techniques to refrigerate their supplies and samples. And for the rest of the time without power, they sanitize the clinic.

Ciani Castaneda

“During a blackout, we usually use that time for clean, which is the sanitization of the materials, the sterilization of equipment, and then we also used to clean the pharmacy, the shelves and other stuff. We still continue taking lab samples, blood samples, and as we say, use the same technique as with our medication. We use ice bags to keep it cool and then we send it to our lab. Sometimes it does affect because the doctor uses some equipment, especially the light to assess the patients, so it does affect us here.”

Medical exams using electrical equipment are just one area of business that San Pedranos have had to endure inconvenience since Wednesday. Restaurants have also been affected by the setback. For Elvi’s Kitchen that already owns a generator, the impact is not as severe as having to throw away spoilage. But they still must incur expenses they ordinarily wouldn’t have to budget for, as chef and co-owner of Elvi’s Kitchen, Jennie Staines told us.

Jennie Staines, Chef/Co-owner, Elvi’s Kitchen

“We have been lucky that we have a generator, but the consumption of the fuel was very high for us because our generator is run by butane. And we had to tap the tank and the following day we had to do the same because we used 80 percent of the big tank. We have to absorb the loss. If we don’t balance out, we have to absorb it because we would never bring up any prices.”

A vendor at a tamales shop on Barrier Reef Drive told us off-camera that they have to close the business when the electricity is cut and they cannot grind corn to make more to sell.

Voice of: Tamales Vendor

“Whenever our first batch of tamalitos finish, we cannot grind anymore because the current is gone. Then we automatically have to close or stay – try wait to make the current come back, and if it not come back, then we have to close. We just manage it with what we make for the day. Once the current goes, then that’s it for the day. We close and we go home.”

We checked in with quite a few hotels and resorts that did not want to go public with their status for fear of losing more business. One resort manager did share with us that they lost money when a few tourists checked out early. That aside, they also incurred additional expenses to purchase ice and generator fuel, as well as to pay for portable generators to be connected. The economic impacts suffered across the town is one that sent the Belize Rural South Area Representative, Andre Perez into a meeting during the latter part of today with relevant parties to discuss the situation.

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

“I certainly cannot quantify it, but certainly the numbers are quite a significant amount here. As it relates to restaurants, hotels, not only that, but at home as well. People who are working, being fully employed, they lost as well. And including some damages as well in, in appliances. And then again last night we had another outage of about two hours and we were told that it was an emergency that they had to do at the southern part of the island.”

Perez says that B.E.L. has assured that the problem will be remedied by the end of this month.  But Perez questions B.E.L’s investments on the island and asks for priority, considering that San Pedro is one of the nation’s most popular tourism destination.

Andre Perez

“I’m not here to point fingers, but rather is this is a indication of the growth of the economy. Especially as it relates to tourism, San Pedro has been growing by leaps and bounds. So I think B.E.L is playing catch up to supply that energy that we are consuming. While we are getting short-term solutions right now to just to deal with this for the month of May, we need to know what is going up ahead because we need long-term plans as well.”

C.E.O, John Mencias explained how BEL will expand its capacity over the next ten years.

John Mencias, C.E.O, Belize Electricity Limited

“For the period now – 2023 to 2032, the next 10 years, which is the plan that we expect a huge spike in demand because of the rate of the growth that we have been seeing. We are projecting that this is what the increase in peak demand will be in this country driven mainly, it seems by tourism and to an extent, by climate change as well. But then you also see the planned capacity additions. It’s made up of a combination of upgrades to the gas turbine at mile eight and the new gas turbine that will be deployed in San Pedro, about 80 megawatts of solar plant, about 40 megawatts of wind power plant, and about 40 megawatts of battery energy storage solutions.”

Marion Ali for News Five.

The uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price is crucial for the reliable operation of country’s economy.  It directly impacts national security, economic growth, and the well-being of citizens.  Energy security is important.  So, what does the Leader of the Opposition think of what has been happening with blackouts across the country?  Here are his views.

Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“Energy security promised, now we have shedding, as they want to call it and again, I appreciate Mr. Mencias’ honesty, but someone needs to be fired, someone needs to be held accountable.  What has Micho Chebat been doing since he took on the portfolio at PUC?  Where is Fortis, where is the billion dollar company, Fortis, who, I see, are posting in Facebook that they are making arrangements to get energy from the dam and they are doing all types of things.  Why hasn’t this been a discussion for the last four years?  And again, it is quintessential People’s United Party governance.  No consultation, no inclusion.  The opposition and other stakeholders should be at the table.  I have a paper, a white paper here from the NTUCB where last year, they were giving recommendations for enhanced focus on energy efficiency, alternative tax measures to make the incidents of taxation more progressive when it comes to energy so that we could lower the exorbitant prices that have come about from the highest gas prices ever, strategies for reducing electricity cost for the consumers, sustained off-grid financing for rural communities. For us to be here now with John Mencias, the CEO of BEL saying well, you know, for ten years we knew that we had this problem but no one did anything is absolutely deplorable.  It is devastating to the health sector, to the tourism sector, to the economy which is driven by our tourism.”