3 weeks ago
19
Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) says it is ready to move forward, pending government’s final approval, with a major investment on Ambergris Caye. The company held a press briefing this morning to update the media on the company’s financial position, ongoing projects and plans to meet growing electricity demand across the country. Executive Chair Lynn Young says one of the most urgent areas is San Pedro Ambergris Caye, where rapid growth in tourism, construction and new developments has pushed electricity demand beyond earlier projections. Young says a forty-million-U.S.-dollar grant approved through the Millennium Challenge Corporation will be critical in strengthening both generation and distribution capacity on the island.
Lynn Young, Executive Chairman, BEL: “With respect to the MCC project now, I think Sheena also mentioned that we have this cable that’s supplying San Pedro. The load has grown significantly and we’re in danger of that cable failing because of overloading. So we had to put a gas turbine there to take some of the loading off the cable. And the company had already done some numbers to run a new cable to San Pedro with more capacity. It works out to about $140 million. So when we discussed with the government and MCC we felt the best use of the MCC fund would be to help us put that in place because of the importance of course of San Pedro in the economy and the cost of that project. But that’s just one part of it, because like I said, with the economic growth that’s taking place there’s tremendous need for capital investment in the infrastructure. We estimate that we’re probably going to have to spend between $80 and $100 million dollars a year just to keep up with the quote. That’s to put in the solar, put in the batteries, to upgrade the transmission line, the line that feeds down south from Democracia it’s 69 KV. The load has been going down there. We’re going to have to upgrade that line to 115 KV. That’s going to be another probably another hundred million dollar project. So electricity the projects are very expensive and you have to plan them well in advance and then you have to make sure that you have the capital to do it. So that MCC grant comes in really really handy to take that part out of the way. It’s a $40 million US dollar grant that that’s going we hope, we understand is it’s practically approved. I think it’s we’re gonna get the news probably sometime at the end of this month whether or not it’s approved. I see the government just signed off, so I expect that we’re going to get approved, and that’s what it’s going to be used.”
Love News understands that the submarine cable will cost upwards of 120 million Belize dollars.
English (US) ·