It appears that the nationwide power outage last week did more than just turn off the lights. It also turned off the national rate regulatory agency (ARESEP) as it was considering the rate hike asked by the Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE).

ARESEP’s chief regulatory of energy, Fernando Herrero, told a news conference yesterday that ARESEP was inclined to grant half of ICE’s rate hike request—until the nation’s lights went out last Thursday night for more than an hour. “It’s unacceptable that we grant a hike with such poor service.”

Like all good bureaucrats, ICE executives asked for a much higher rate increase than it could expect to get from ARESEP, a whopping 23% average hike. ARESEP was inclined to grant a bit over 18% for homes and a hair more than 15% for business and industry. But the blackout changed the regulators’ minds.

Herrero added that ICE is in good financial condition and can well afford to consider a little financing. ICE has 35 days to present another proposal and by that time may have cleaned the egg off its face…