Bad luck blamed for weekend blackouts
Posted: 14/07/2009 - 10:21 AM
Author: Adele Ramos - adelescribe@gmail.com
Belizeans suffered a string of unfortunate power outages over the stormy weekend, beginning with the extended blackout that plunged the country into several hours of darkness early on Saturday morning. Sittee River, Stann Creek, has fared off the worst, suffering without power for nearly half a day today.
According to a statement from the Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), at 11:35 on Friday night, a ground wire broke away from a pole near the Buena Vista Substation and caused a fault on the 115 kV transmission line between Buena Vista and Maskall, leading to the first major power outage.
The north was brought back on line with Mexican supply by 2:17 a.m. Saturday. San Ignacio and surrounding areas got their power back by 2:10 a.m.; Belmopan and surrounding areas by 3:15 a.m.; and Southern areas and Belize City by 4:10 a.m. Ladyville and San Pedro suffered the longest blackouts and were not restored until after 4:30 Saturday morning.
The other major power outage happened the following afternoon, around 2:30 on Sunday, and lasted for almost three hours.
According to BEL, the power outage was due to a failed lightning arrestor at the Magazine Road Substation and bad weather hindered work crews from doing the necessary repairs more quickly.
Between 8:00 and 8:40 that same night, the power went out again. BEL stated today that, “...there was another weather-related incident at Mile 8 on the Western Highway, which caused an outage to those communities on the Western Highway, from Belize City to Hattieville to Belize River Valley and also those communities from Mile 1 to Mile 3 on the Northern Highway.”
The outages continued today. Power went out this morning at 3:11 for areas along the Southern Highway, from its junction with Hummingbird Highway to Sittee River Village, but was restored by 4:23 a.m., except for Sittee River which had its power back at 2:10 Monday afternoon.
BEL claims that the outage was the result of a tree falling on a power line in Sittee River during an early morning storm in the area.
“Power restoration was delayed because several large trees fell across the access road to the community and assistance was needed to remove the fallen trees,” the company added.
Even as BEL has been reporting a string of mishaps on the national grid over the weekend, the situation has been worsened, BEL claimed, because two local sources are out of service.
One is their gas turbine, which BEL claims is offline for two weeks due to maintenance. The second is Hydro Maya Limited, which the company claims suffered damage due to a mechanical failure.
BEL said that it has been coordinating with Belize Aquaculture Limited (BAL), a local power supplier, to provide additional power supply.
When BEL had warned of short supply from CFE for several months this year, the Public Utilities Commission had called on the National Emergency Organization to intervene to ensure continuous supply of electricity.
Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of National Emergency Management, Colonel George Lovell, told Amandala this evening that shortly before five this evening, he and BAL officials signed a supplementary power purchase agreement for up to 8 MW of additional power from the local supplier, to provide backup power for the national grid. The agreement, said Lovell, has still not been signed by BEL.
Lovell said that when he met with BEL’s CEO Lynn Young late this evening, following his meeting with BAL, Young informed him that BEL’s directors had not yet approved the agreement.
BEL also said that there are some rotten lines and poles that need to be looked at, said Lovell.
The company reported in today’s statement to the press that as of Wednesday, July 15, one of CFE’s large generators will be down for maintenance.
Col. Lovell advises the public to conserve energy to lower the demand for power.
|