BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Prime Minister John Briceño says his government is exploring the possibility of Belize purchasing electricity from ships that sell the commodity, even as it has received an assurance from the new Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum that she will honor an existing agreement between the two countries.
Briceño was among world leaders attending the inauguration of Mexico’s first woman president.
He said that in his discussions with President Sheinbaum, one of the matters discussed was Mexico’s power supply to Belize. Briceño said that Belize is already consuming the amount of energy in 2024 projected for 2028, thanks to the country’s economic growth.
President Sheinbaumis is reported to have assured Prime Minister Briceño that she would uphold the gentleman’s agreement with her predecessor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to maintain Belize’s current power supply.
López Obrador met with Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño in Mexico City on May 7, and energy was one of the issues they discussed,
“We just had a meeting with the prime minister of Belize, and there is an agreement with them to help with electricity even with this special situation due to the heat,” López Obrador told reporters to add, “We’re going to fulfill the agreement … so they don’t lack electricity in Belize…We are neighbors, and we have to help each other.”
In May this year, Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) said it had been forced to implement power interruptions throughout the country after indicating that the power plant in Mexico could not meet the high demand for electricity in Belize.
According to BEL, daily electricity demand levels have varied between 85 megawatts (MW) and 125 MW over the past few weeks, while country capacity is currently a maximum of 93 MW.
“This means that BEL depends on supply from Comision Federal De Electricidad (CFE) in Mexico to meet demand for a significant portion of the day. CFE normally supplied up to 55 MW of capacity to the grid,” BEL said in a statement.
But Prime Minister Briceño said that the discussions with the new Mexican president also explored the possibility of Belize purchasing power from ships that sell electricity.
“There’s a group in Belize now that they’ve been talking to another company outside of Belize that they have these ships with these giant plants. So, they’re saying they can contract this, “Briceño said.
“They have already signed an agreement with this group and can bring the board. But the board produces 80 megawatts. We can’t use it. A good thing about our agreement with CFE is that we can buy and sell. So we decided to go to them and pitch the idea,” he added.
Prime Minister Briceño said it would be far easier for Belize to bring the ship to Belize, saying, “We use what we need, and then we send over the rest to you.
“At a very small margin to pay for the expenses. And they were pretty excited because they liked us. Quintana Roo depends solely on tourism. Last year, they had over 18 million visitors, so they couldn’t afford the blackouts, just like we could.
“So we had a perfect meeting. We set up a team comprising people from BEL, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance…PUC will meet with their technical people to start working on how we can do this.”
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