Power is such an important element in modern society that losing it or making not enough of it can be detrimental to a nation's development, may it be social, economical, or even political. No wonder it has been the source of much political tension between countries during the past century.
Belize is not exempted from this fact. There was a bit of alarm and surprise among the public when the country's sole power public supply company, Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), announced that its partner, Mexican company Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), decided to cancel its contract with the BEL to guaranteed power supply to Belize.
In a press release, BEL said that the cancellation of the contract was due to "Force majeure" reasons. Apparently, CFE is currently experiencing a natural catastrophe that interrupts its power supply back in Mexico. It further said that the CFE's generation capacities have been greatly limited because of problems with gas availability, generation equipment, and below-expectations hydroelectric production.
If we will believe in what the BEL has to say, however, there is still no reason to get alarmed. The BEL said that the company has enough local generation power to supply Belize's local demands. In addition to this, the CFE is also offering another contract in which it will be supplying Belize emergency energy power of up to 50 megawatts. This contract will be much more expensive than the current one, however.
The current contract is supposed to be ended at the end of December 2010.
With the CFE currently supplying a third of the national power supply, it becomes a curiosity how the BEL will be able to fill this gap with its power generation. Yes, it has a number of hydroelectric plants that will be probably maxed out during the process, but we cannot be sure if that will be ever enough. We can only rely on assurances from the company and, well, hope for the best. There is no use getting alarmed at this point in time.
