by Rod Hughes
The Moin III thermal plant in Limon province suffered no fewer than 95 breakdowns since its installation in May 2003 but finally last April 3 a piece of metal broke loose and was sucked into a turbine, severely damaging its blades and resulting in a serious shortage of electricity and a two-week period of power rationing, according to an exclusive story in the daily La Nacion Monday.
The Moin plant, purchased from the Japanese company Marubeni at a cost of $50 million, failed no fewer than 95 times in the four years of its life, according to an investigative report by La Nacion’s Mercedes Aguero and Esteban Oviedo. The National Power and Light Co. purchased the 40 megawatt thermal plant (powered by fossil fuel) but it was subsequently leased by the Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE) and, despite its dismal service record, inexplicably bought by ICE last year.
According to the newspaper, the Moin III plant also suffered from fuel purification troubles and contamination of the generator from leaking oil. Due to the constant breakdowns and long downtimes, the plant was only on line 30% of the time between 2003 and 2005, the reporters found. Moreover, delays in repair ICE blames on the company caused ICE to complain to Marubeni about a lack of “diligence” in their service.
In another controversial twist, the Power and Light Company returned to Marubeni a $5 million bond guarantee of proper plant functioning in September of 2004. ICE’s official defense is that defects in the plant did not begin showing up until after that expiration date. But journalist Mercedes Aguero quotes ICE assistant manager Manuel Obregon as saying that the defects in the machinery showed up all through 2003.
But this is not the end of ICE’s woes. The older plant Moin II also went down in April and will cost $4.5 million to repair. This thermal plant went on line in 1995 and ICE said it was time for an overhaul. It is scheduled to go back in service by next dry season.