Burnt Crossarm Causes National Power Outages
At 2:46 p.m. yesterday, power supply was lost to the national grid. Work crews were dispatched
to the field immediately and identified a burnt crossarm on the 115 kV transmission line in the
vicinity of San Estevan Village in the Orange Walk District as the cause of the power outage.
Power supply was restored to sections of Belmopan, San Ignacio, Belize City and Ladyville within
25 minutes to one hour; however the system collapsed again at 3:57 p.m.
By 4:42 p.m. power supply was restored to Dangriga, Independence, Punta Gorda and sections of
San Ignacio, Ladyville and Belmopan; by 5:08 p.m. power supply was restored to Orange Walk
and Corozal; by 6:23 p.m. power supply was restored to Belize City and at 8:13 p.m. power
supply was restored to San Pedro Town.
In addition to mobilizing work crews and equipment, BEL also had to carry out repairs to a
malfunctioning switch at the Buena Vista Substation.
BEL work crews completed replacement of the burnt crossarm at 7:30 p.m. and while in the
process of restoring the transmission line between Buena Vista and Maskall, power supply was
lost to the national grid at 8:00 p.m. Within 17 minutes power was fully restored to all parts of
the country. BEL continues to investigate the cause of the burnt crossarm.
BEL apologizes for any inconvenience caused by these outages. For more information call 0-800-
BEL-CARE (0-800-235-2273).
AmbergrisCaye.com 
