BEL is stepping into the future and transforming Belize's energy sector with its 5 year business plan. They're working towards a cleaner and greener country with electric cars, electric stoves, solar powered energy, and increased accessibility and reliability.

Their plan was introduced at a Stakeholder's Engagement held today at their office. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.

Belize Electricity Limited is stepping up their service and embracing the future of energy. At their stakeholders engagement today, they rolled out their five-year plan and explained what they have in store for their customers. And according to one of the members of their leadership team, they've been taking note of all your concerns.

Dawn Sampson Nunez, GM, Employee & Corporate Services, BEL
"I think, well, we're very confident that our stakeholders, in particular our customers, are very keen to know what projects and initiatives we have planned over the next five years to ensure that we can stabilize cost, that is very important to customers, to ensure that the service we are providing is reliable, and very importantly, sustainable. We all know that there's a growing concern with climate change, there's a global concern there so our stakeholders we believe are very keen on ensuring that the projects and developments we are pursuing, it is environmentally sustainable."

And one of those projects is more accessibility for rural residents, which then leads to getting more electrical appliances into the home - like the electric stove that BEL had on display today. The marketing and sales manager spoke more about what you can expect in the near future.

Lisa Stanford, Marketing & Sales Manager, BEL
"There's two things that we're focusing on, our new energy access policy which will include more people to be connected to BEL, this is something that's coming very soon. Previously, for customers who were on the outskirts of towns and villages and our lines were not necessarily there, they would have to pay to get BEL to bill out the line to them. In the change in policy, so BEL has changed their focus completely, we're doing the investment, so we're bringing the lines to the customers in these areas, if you're in a town, village, or city and if you're 750 feet from our primary distribution line, BEL is coming to connect you and you will pay in most cases, just the regular connection fee. "

"The other thing we're doing here which is pretty exciting is that everything is better electric and so we're pushing that. Right now BEL is 80% of in country electricity is renewable so on the forefront of that, why go electric? It's good for the planet, we're here now but we will have kids, we'll have grandkids, we want here to live here long so reducing the carbon emission is something BEL is on the forefront of so it's good for the plant. The appliances and also the vehicles are more efficient and over time the cost is very good."

And it's not just electric stoves, BEL is developing charging stations to match the growing electric vehicle movement. While there are about 20-30 electric vehicles in country at this time, they estimate that that will steadily increase by12% within the next five years. Their plan is to make sure that those car owners have what they need to make the switch.

Selene Solis, Market, Research & Innovation Officer, BEL
"We anticipate that the uptake in electric vehicles is set to increase significantly over the next five years and even beyond, just following global trends of phase out of internal combustion engine vehicles. What that means for us in Belize is that we need to be prepared to match that global transition because it will trickle to our countries and we know that there are existing electric vehicles in the country already, owners who are bringing in them second hand and brand new and they want to feel confident that they're able to use these new technologies with access to the proper charging facilities, so that's what BEL has been doing over the past year, working on a pilot project, a phase one of that pilot project, to install publicly available charging infrastructure across the country to complement what will be the primary charging, at home charging for electric vehicle owners."

"It's more environmentally friendly, less carbon emissions, the second and probably the most important is the cost savings from fuel and maintenance cost. So an electric vehicle has less components than a traditional combustion engine vehicle so it will require less maintenance overtime, less servicing overtime, and then of course, we know that our electricity rates are constant and have been constant over the years at 40 cents per kilowatt hour as compared to the varying and increasing cost of gasoline. So you have that predictability in terms of the rate that you will be charged for electricity and that increased affordability because it's much cheaper to let's say full up your battery on an electric vehicle than it is to full up your fuel vehicle."

And if electric stoves and vehicles aren't your thing, BEL is also making moves to ensure that every customer's needs is met.

Karique Marin, Manager, Distribution Planning & Engineering, BEL
"Our booth is looking at distributed generation, so looking at how we can use solar energy for example to merge with the BEL system to provide customers with their needs to meet the demands and the changing technology of the world. So we are looking at BEL to provide all customers with what they need. If you are looking for 100% reliability meaning no outage ever, we're looking at a solution to provide that. If you're looking for solution for example that wants green energy, so using solar energy, while BEL's grid is already green with 55% green energy, you may need more than that, you might want to advertise that you have solar energy, we can also provide you a solution for that."

Channel 7