Costa Rica to double power generation within 6 years

• 14 years ago (2010-04-20)
• David Flin

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According to Costa Rica’s Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), under its Electricity Generation Plan for 2010-2021, it will operate an additional 14 more power plants by 2016. These will increase national capacity from 2400MW to 4018MW. The ICE said that these new plants will help cope with the rise in electricity demand and reduce the risk of blackouts.

Currently, Costa Rica’s power demand peaks at 1624MW, and the reserve margin is small (around 700MW). As a result, the electrical system is vulnerable to blackouts. Faced with a severe decrease in rainfall, it would be necessary to implement power rationing. Power demand is rising sharply, and is expected to reach 2500MW by 2016.

However, if these plans materialise on schedule, by 2016, Costa Rica will have greater energy security, with capacity exceeding the estimated demand by 1500MW.

The development of new projects is being led by ICE, which would provide 70 per cent of the power generation. The remainder would be covered by private contributions for the construction of smaller-capacity plants that would sell power to ICE.