By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): Belize was running on borrowed margin Tuesday night, and when Mexico’s supply dropped, there was nothing left to catch the fall.
Belize Electricity Limited says the system collapsed at 7:28pm after a temporary loss of power from Mexico’s Comisión Federal de Electricidad.
The numbers explain what happened. Local generation stood at about 103 megawatts. Evening peak demand hit 122 megawatts. That gap of roughly 19 megawatts was being covered by Mexico, and when it went, the grid’s protection system began shedding load to keep the whole thing from failing worse.
Power stayed out across large parts of the country until CFE supply came back at 10:54pm.
BEL says local generation is constrained on several fronts. Some renewable sources are down for seasonal reasons, some units are out for maintenance, and others are running below capacity.
That is the underlying issue. When the country depends on imported power to cover peak demand, a problem in another country becomes a problem here.
Where were you when the lights went out?
