Blackouts recently affected many parts of Mexico as demand for power increased amid hot weather, but the country will nevertheless supply electricity to Belize, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Tuesday.
“We just had a meeting with the prime minister of Belize and there is an agreement with them to help with electricity even with this special situation due to the heat,” López Obrador told reporters at his morning press conference.
“We’re going to fulfill the agreement … so they don’t lack electricity in Belize,” he said. “… We are neighbors and we have to help each other.”
López Obrador didn’t say how much electricity Mexico would supply to Belize, when cross-border transmission would commence or whether the government of the small Central American country would pay for the power it receives.
Belize borders the state of Quintana Roo, from where electricity will presumably be transmitted to Mexico’s neighbor.
López Obrador met with Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño in Mexico City on May 7, and energy was one of the issues they discussed, according to a government statement.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena said the same day that Mexico was willing to sell electricity to both Belize and Guatemala. That remark came just hours before blackouts occurred in more than 20 states after the National Energy Control Center declared a state of emergency in Mexico’s electricity system.
On Tuesday, López Obrador noted that there were no blackouts on Monday despite high demand for electricity that coincided with the commencement of the third heat wave of the year.
“Yesterday was a day of high energy usage, but fortunately there wasn’t a suspension of electricity service,” he said.
Despite what “some people” say, the national electricity sector is in good shape, the president said, insinuating that Mexico was in a position to supply power to Belize without compromising domestic service.
He asserted that his government took action as soon as it took office to strengthen the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), a state-owned utility.
With reports from Reforma, El Universal and El Financiero
Just when one figures he has AMLO’s energy policy figured out, he surprises.
Of course Mexico should export electricity — to the south, and to the north. There is a robust solar industry that can add capacity in a few months, not years like other sources. It would be even more helpful if Mexico, together with the US, helped finance these projects in Guatemala and Belize. Adding capacity and users strengthens the overall market.
But who would have thought AMLO would have figured that out?
Seems like a very strange announcement right in the midst of this Spring’s rolling blackouts (we’ve had 3 or 4 in the past month), wells being shut off due to “low voltage” issues, etc. 😢