The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) confirmed that it had to make a purchase of electricity from Panama this week.
The entity blamed the need to import electric power on the scheduled maintenance of the Cachí and Angostura plants, as well as La Joya and Torito private plants, which were recently decommissioned.
According to the entity, in addition to this, there was a decrease in the rains compared to the historical average and a fall in the wind speed that also made it impossible to use the energy generated by the wind plants, which could only contribute 1% of the total production of the national electricity system this Wednesday.
This behavior mainly impacts water-borne hydroelectric plants located in the Northern Region of the national territory. Given these conditions, the Institute made an opportunity purchase on Wednesday at the Regional Electricity Market (MER), after incorporating into the electrical system all available energy from private plants, as well as that produced in plants owned by the CNFL, the cooperatives of electrification and municipal companies.
According to ICE, the transaction allowed us to meet the country’s electricity demand and maintain the water resources of the Arenal, Reventazón and Pirrís reservoirs in order to meet the needs of the first months of 2020.
The ICE reiterates that, before making purchases at the MER, it integrates 100% of the national offer, both its own, as well as the private one, and that coming from cooperatives and other electricity distributors,”
said the entity.