Apr 28th, 2004

BAD WEATHER IN MEXICO CAUSES EXTENDED POWER OUTAGE IN BELIZE

Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) successfully restored electricity service to all areas supplied via Belize 's national electricity grid last night after a fault on the transmission line from Mexico to Belize resulted in a total system collapse.

Just after 8:30 p.m., the 115Kv transmission line that transmits energy supply from Comision Federal de Electricidad in Mexico to Belize experienced a trip as a result of severe thunderstorms that were affecting the area near the Xulha Substation in Mexico . At the time of the outage, CFE was supplying 15MW to help BEL meet its demand of 52MW. The loss of supply from Mexico resulted in a total system collapse, as the other supply sources could not immediately make up for the shortfall.

To restore supply, BEL resorted to its Gas Turbine Unit and diesel-fired generation, and supply from the Mollejon Hydrelectric Plant. Critical areas such as the Hospital were restored within 15 minutes, with service fully restored to all areas within an hour. CFE has since repaired the fault and is providing BEL with its regular supply of 25MW of power.