Costa Rica managed to avoid the electrical rationing plan of up to three hours a day announced for this week throughout the Central American country due to a sharp drop in flows in hydroelectric plants. The rains of recent days allowed a minimum recovery to maintain the stability of the service throughout the country, according to the reports issued every day by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) to postpone the onset of blackouts. The emergency seems controlled for now, but it has left the situation for the next few days on hold and raised the alarm about the fragility of the energy matrix based on renewable sources over which the authorities lack control.
“If God continues to help us there will be no rationing at all,” said President Rodrigo Chaves on Wednesday, appealing to faith as a favorable factor for the suspension of the rationing plan scheduled to begin on Monday and which has already been ruled out for the entire week. , at least. Official reports issued every two days have pointed out the slight recovery of the reservoirs of the main hydroelectric plants, which support almost 70% of the electricity generation of the country, proud of the clean nature of its electrical production and which, when combined with small wind and geothermal installations, and solar energy leaves the portion of electricity powered by fossil fuels at less than 10%.
The problem comes when the rains and winds decrease, as has happened in recent months due to the effects of the El Niño climate phenomenon in the central area of the continent. The rainfall deficit in 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 put the stability of the service in check and forced rationing to be prepared as had not happened since 2007, although in extremis The seasonal rainy season has entered and the cuts have been suspended.
“The first week of application of the measure will conclude without having made cuts in the country’s electricity supply,” reported this afternoon the ICE, a state entity that has a monopoly on electricity distribution in the country. “If the consolidation of the rainy season advances, the eventual lifting of the rationing alert will be evaluated in the coming days. Until then, it will remain active,” added the official statement, without giving certainty about next week’s supply. “We would like to have a larger projection, but we depend on the volatility of meteorological conditions,” the authorities acknowledge.
Run-of-river reservoirs are the generation systems that are fed by daily rain and have been vital this week. One day at a time, without the possibility of predicting beyond a few hours, is the way in which the electrical authorities have faced the critical moment by sending voltage to the transmission lines, but also the political discussion over the blame for having reached this point. shortages and planning responsibilities. Also because of the way in which the country must prepare for the future, even more so with the policy of attracting foreign industries that are intensive in energy consumption and because of the increase in the use of air conditioning due to the increase in temperatures.
The recent debate on the sustainability of the energy model was reactivated to the point that President Chaves has left open the possibility of reactivating a large hydroelectric project called Diquís, in the southern part of the country, which required the construction of a huge reservoir with repercussions environmental and social, since it even required consultation with indigenous populations living in that region. The reason for canceling the project in 2018, however, was the consideration that the country had excess installed capacity to generate electricity.
There are also projects on paper for solar and geothermal generation, with the purpose of maintaining the sustainable nature of the energy matrix, although recognizing that there must be a greater reserve based on hydrocarbons, as the Minister of Environment and Energy, Franz Tattenbach, has said. In parallel, calls are emerging for a legal reform that expands the generation of private plants and the possibility of breaking the state monopoly maintained by ICE. Its executive president, Marco Acuña, for now breathes a sigh of relief for overcoming the current energy shortage, although he knows that nothing is completely solved for reasons that he expressed in August in an interview with EL PAÍS: “We cannot sign an energy purchase contract. with Mother Nature.”
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