The Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica announced on Wednesday that it will analyze the requests for an increase in electricity rates submitted by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), and will present the arguments of opposition before the ARESEP.
The ICE requests an increase of 13% for consumers and CNFL wants an increase of 24%. They be in force from January 1st, 2019.
What surprises us the most is that these institutions that serve 80% of the country’s consumers don’t understand that requesting an increase in their electricity rates can have a boomerang effect for them, because it will motivate many consumers to install solar panels due to the cost savings that will allow them to face the constant increases,”
said Carlos Montenegro, deputy director of the Chamber.
According to Montenegro, in the last years, the ICE and the CNFL have seen a stagnant demand for power service.
Growth rates of 5% to 7% have been reduced to 1% or 2% in the last 5 years. So requesting an increase in their electricity rates can be a cure worse than the disease, because consumers are already analyzing options to get out of this vicious circle of increases and are looking for new options such as solar panels,”
added the representative.
The chamber trusted that ARESEP will be firm in not including unnecessary costs to offer the service.