by Rod Hughes
UPDATE—Power outages continued throughout the country this week due to a decision by the Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE) to ration electricity to make up a lack caused by low water levels (according to ICE) in hydroelectric dams around the country. The blackouts, unlike the one April 19 touched off by the explosion of a circuit at Cachi Reservoir causing a nationwide domino effect, are regional, lasting from two and a half to four hours.
(ICE promised shorter outages during the weekend and then only in some sectors.)
Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Arias, acting in the President’s name, has declared the energy crunch a national crisis, although how this will put Humpty Dumpty together again is not explained in detail other than a call to the Legislative Assembly (congress) to give ICE sufficient funds to finish several hydroelectric projects in progress.
Business leaders and industrialists, through the union of private enterprise chambers, have severely criticized ICE for not confronting the problem sooner Certainly, many were hurt by the unexpected blackout of more than an hour April 19. The Tico Times reported last Friday that Intel, the electronics giant, lost 150,000 units on the production line at their plant here.
ICE, after promising that rationing would not be required, began the so-called “rolling outages” after ARESEP, the country’s rate regulator, turned down a 23% increase in electric rates, granting a lower percentage and then rescinding even that after the April 19 blackout.
ARESP said ICE demanded far more than it needed. ICE responded that they had no money to pay for diesel to run their thermal generators to make up the gap caused by their faltering hydroelectric output—and began the rolling blackouts.
Many observers suspect that the frequent blackouts are a power play (no pun intended) by ICE to pressure ARESEP to grant all it asks.
But there is little doubt that the country must update its generating capacity in the near future to meet a precipitously rising energy demand.