Andrew Marshalleck, BEL board chairman
by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. June 19, 2025
The national power company, Belize Electricity Ltd. (BEL), has reported a $9.7 million loss for the last fiscal year ending December 2024, but this did not impact the stance of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which has denied BEL’s request for a rate adjustment in its Annual Review Proceedings for the period July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.
BEL Chief Executive Officer, John Mencias made the public aware of the company’s fiscal shortfall at a press briefing on November 29 last year when he announced that the company lost $17 million during the dry season in May 2024, when the peak demand was 129 Megawatts, which the combined BELCOGEN biomass energy-generation and Chalillo-Mollejon hydroelectric facilities could not meet. BEL bought power from Mexico’s Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) at exorbitant rates of 65 cents/kwh, which caused BEL’s average cost of power for that period to rise to 54 cents per kilowatt-hour, while Belizean consumers were only paying 40 cents/kilowatt-hour on average. CFE’s rate fell to 53 cts/kwh in June, reducing BEL’s average cost of power to 47 cts/kwh. This was still far more than the residential rate of 33cts/kwh and commercial/industrial rates of 43 cts/kwh in Belize. BEL recouped some of its losses in October when average cost of power fell to 20 cts/kwh, and the company reported a profit of $6.8 million.
Belizean consumers will “need to make informed energy choices”, BEL board chairman Andrew Marshalleck noted in his foreword to the company’s annual shareholder’s report, which is to be presented at the BEL shareholders annual general meeting this month. The heat and CFE supply constraints had made the cost of power extremely volatile, which had made BEL’s 2024 fiscal year “wildly unpredictable”. This year’s dry season has already caused BEL to amass a $16 million debt.
The PUC was unmoved by these circumstances when it announced its Final Decision on BEL’s annual review proceedings (ARP) for the annual tariff period July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, while maintaining BEL’s viability in accordance with the Electricity Act and Byelaws. It informed the company that the PUC has a “regulatory mandate to ensure reasonably stable and affordable electricity rates”, and that after reviewing BEL’s submission for the annual rate review, it did not approve any adjustment to any previously regulated established values, average electricity rates and tariffs, charges and fees contained in Schedule 1.
As part of its Final Decision, the PUC ordered BEL to “make a comprehensive filing, including the establishment of a proposed wholesale generation subsidiary (Synergy Power Belize Limited) and the proposed rates to be charged by June 30, 2025.” The company is also ordered to “make a comprehensive filing, including all relevant data and analysis, to support the company’s proposed new Cost Reflective Tariff Structure.”