Solar, wind, and battery energy are the future of Belize’s energy generation, say BEL’s senior managers. BEL is transitioning from reliance on Mexican energy supplier, CFE.
BELIZE CITY, Wed. June. 1, 2022
Yesterday, senior managers of the Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) held a media event at which they provided an update on strides being made by the company to improve energy delivery and the reliability of such energy provision within the country. The key point made by the managers was that data drawn from its most recent Least-costs Generation and Transmission Study clearly indicates that the best path for the country is a transition to solar, wind, and battery energy, all renewable sources, which will be generated in-country, and according to one representative from BEL, this would reduce the reliance on Mexican power from Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE).
Last Friday evening, power supply was interrupted across the country unexpectedly, and BEL, in a release on the matter, had indicated that they lost supply from Mexico’s CFE, but were able to reconnect the entire country through the reorganization of power supply from local independent power producers — which taught Karique Marin, Manager of Distribution Planning and Engineering at BEL, a key lesson:
He explained, “BEL lost supply from CFE at approximately 3:55 p.m., due to a fault on the Yucatan grid. The dispatch profile at the time comprised CFE, BECOL, BELCOGEN, Santander, and BAPCOL. At the time of the incident, approximately the 56% of energy to BEL customers was supplied by CFE.” When this supply went down, local producers were able to produce enough energy to keep certain sections of the country connected, but a total grid failure was imminent.
“We did, however, later on, suffer a total power outage for the entire country as our local IPPs were unable to support the demand of these areas that remained online. All the local IPPs were highly responsive during this critical time. When the grid collapsed, that was during the restoration process, and as mentioned, we did not have as much local supply to match the load. So, we did lose the entire grid.” Marin explained, but he noted that they took a little over two hours to restore power, by synchronizing the local IPPs to the grid to re-connect before CFE reconnected.
“The system was restored before we reconnected at the CFE. So, what happened was we brought on local supply that was then synchronized to the grid, and then re-energized most customers within that two and a half hours. Learning from this incident, however, BEL and its IPPs will make adjustments to restore as quickly as possible for any future event.” Marin said.
At this time, BEL is reliant on energy from CFE as the source of 55% of the grid’s energy, according to the BEL representatives, with local IPPs producing energy using hydro and biomass sources that together produce approximately 45% of the energy supply needed to maintain the roughly 110-megawatt grid. The company is seeking to put in place more renewable energy generation technology to tap into the local energy potential, and allow those sources to feed the grid and provide our primary source of power, while the power from Mexico would serve as a backup supply when there are opportunities to take advantage of more competitive prices.
Sean Fuller, General Manager, Commercial and Retail Services, of BEL explained, “The study is saying we can have as much as 45 to 60 megawatts additional solar, on the network. It also speaks of wind technology that we’re able to be able to experiment with, based on the studies that are showing the potential for wind in certain areas of the country. It also calls for battery systems, where we will install ten or 20 megawatt-sized battery technology systems for an immediate response when we have issues on the network, and also for solar intermittency.”
He said that while there is room for utilizing natural gas plants as an energy source as well, this current phase of their efforts is focused on generating renewable energy using the sun, wind, and batteries. For solar energy operations, which, as mentioned, have the potential to generate as much as 60 megawatts of power for the grid, the company is looking to distribute solar infrastructure to its customers, which will generate the electricity they need, while any surplus energy would be channeled to the national grid. Persons who already have solar panels are allowed to sell their excess energy to the company.
“We want to be able to compensate customers for the energy they export back to the grid, but we are also contemplating providing, in fact, we’ve done the studies, we’ve done the development of customer propositions to be able to offer our customers solar PV systems where we will own and operate the solar on your roof. You will have zero out-of-pocket. we will install the solar on your roof, you will enjoy the benefit of green energy, you will enjoy the benefit of the cheaper sources or the cheaper energy from that solar PV system, you will remain our customer and so there will not be a revenue loss. It will just simply mean that the sources of energy that we have to purchase to supply will also come from you,” Fuller said.
The BEL reps said that the transition to local production of renewable energy will stabilize the cost of power, and reduce the variability of prices by reducing the reliance on fossil fuel, while making Belize an independent power producer itself, with potential down the road to sell excess energy to Mexico and Guatemala.
And while we currently produce renewable energy at the hydro and biomass plants in Belize, reliance on those sources will depend on various environmental factors, driving home the importance of the rollout of the three new proposed sources. The BEL managers said that they expect no additional cost to customers for the rollout of this project and suggested, in fact, a possible reduction in the cost of power for customers when these renewable sources are rolled out.
“As it relates to, obviously there was a shock [with] the increase in fossil fuels which impact both the generation at Caye Caulker, the generation at the Mile 8 sub-station facility and the BAPCOL facility down south that are reliant on fossil fuels. Niche plans that we have that start immediately is for us to be less reliant on these facilities and more reliant on renewable energy resources — solar, wind and the cheap power that we can when it’s available from Mexico,” Fuller said.