BEL Explains San Pedro Power Outage
San Pedro Town experienced a power outage on Sunday evening after a transformer owned by Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) failed near Ramon’s Village Resort shortly after 6:00 p.m. Locals reported hearing a noise resembling an explosion.
In an official statement, BEL confirmed the outage resulted from a hardware fault on the overhead section of the 34.5 kV sub-transmission line that delivers electricity to the island. This line connects San Pedro to the national grid through submarine, underground, and overhead components.
The situation was further complicated because BEL’s San Pedro Gas Turbine backup system could not be triggered, as it also depends on the damaged transmission line. Additionally, adverse weather conditions slowed down repair efforts.
"The outage was caused by a hardware fault on the overhead portion of the 34.5 kV sub-transmission line that supplies power to the island."
"BEL’s San Pedro Gas Turbine, which typically serves as a backup, could not be activated because it relies on the same damaged transmission line."
Summary
The power outage in San Pedro was caused by a hardware fault and worsened by bad weather, preventing backup systems from restoring power quickly.