The long awaited submarine cable to connect Caye Caulker to the national power grid has arrived in country. This is a photo of it being loaded on to a barge at the Big Creek Port today.
The cable is almost 10 miles long and weighs 400 tons or almost 900,000 pounds.
Now, this brings the island village one critical step closer to interconnection with the national grid - but, ironically, it is at a time when the grid is the most unstable - due to a rapid rise in the demand for power.
In late June, the BEL Chairman says that Caye Caulker's power is more stable with the raft of generators installed there as an emergency measure in 2020:
Jules Vasquez
"I've been hearing about and doing stories on the submarine cable from San Pedro to Caye Caulker for probably 5-7 years and that project is still not operationalized."
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Belize Electricity Ltd.
"The irony of that, the electricity supply in Caye Caulker is in fact right now the most secure. They dont have a capacity problem. If they were hooked into the grid, they would have a capacity problem."
Jules Vasquez
"So the entire country might have blackout, but Caye Caulker would be still illuminated?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, Belize Electricity Ltd.
"It will be."
The cost to connect Caye Caulker is expected to be in the range of $15 Million dollars.
