By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): Government’s $73 million purchase of BEL preference shares will not solve all of the utility’s money problems, according to Executive Chairman Lynn Young.
BEL has also asked the Public Utilities Commission to double the Cost of Power Adjustment (COPA) cap from 5% to 10%. Young explained what that could mean for customers’ bills.
“The average price from BEL to customers is forty four cents and if you add the COPA it is about forty five and a half cents, and if the PUC was to approve this adjustment to the COPA it could go as high as forty seven cents per kilowatt hour,” Young said.
Even with that extra revenue, Young said it may not cover BEL’s monthly operating costs, largely because of the high price of diesel.
“For diesel right now, it is costing us almost a dollar per kilowatt hour, just for the diesel, and of course you have operation and maintenance and whatever. So we try to run the diesel as little as possible,” he said.
Young explained that power from CFE in Mexico is sometimes cheaper, but its prices change depending on the time of day and conditions in Mexico. He said CFE has charged as much as $1 US per kilowatt hour and as little as 10 cents US.
This past Sunday, CFE averaged 30 cents US per kilowatt hour, and BEL ran its diesel generators heavily because CFE supply was not available.
Members of the public can submit comments on BEL’s COPA application to the PUC at [email protected] by 4pm on November 17, 2026.
The post Government puts $73 million into BEL, but company says it still needs more money appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): Government’s $73 million purchase of BEL preference shares will not solve all of the utility’s money problems, according to Executive Chairman Lynn Young. BEL has also asked the Public Utilities Commission to double the Cost of Power Adjustment (COPA) cap from 5% to 10%. Young explained what that could
The post Government puts $73 million into BEL, but company says it still needs more money appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
