By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) yesterday called off planned power outages throughout this week, announcing that workers fixed the three broken thermal energy plants partly responsible for an insufficient national energy supply.

These thermal plants in Barranca, on the central Pacific coast; San Antonio de Belén, northwest of San José; and Moín, on the Caribbean coast; broke down after working “intensely” to make up for low water levels at the country's main hydroelectric plants, according to an ICE statement, which blamed these low water levels on the weather phenomenon El Niño creating an unusually dry rainy season last year.

Residents around the country became aware of the dire energy situation Thursday evening, when a blackout left most of the country in the dark for hours. ICE, Costa Rica's state-run energy monopoly, attributed the incident to an energy transmission malfunction at its plant in the north-central Arenal area.

Some areas of the country lost power again Friday after regaining it following the blackout, and that afternoon ICE announced that power outages would be planned this week to conserve energy and that electricity distributors, including the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), Public Services Company of Heredia (ESPH) and Coopeguanacaste, had been instructed to implement the blackouts.

However, ICE decided to cancel this plan late yesterday afternoon in light of workers repairing the three thermal energy plants, spokeswoman Adriana Víquez told The Tico Times.

“There shouldn't be a need for any power cuts this week,” Víquez said, adding that the coming rainy season will “greatly help” Costa Rica's energy situation.

In the meantime, ICE called for citizens to ensure the “prudent, rational and responsible” use of water and electricity, in a statement.

The blackouts have placed ICE under a national spotlight. Businesses united under the Union of Private-Sector Chambers and Associations (UCCAEP) blasted the institute for not “taking necessary precautions to confront the (energy) demand” in a statement released Friday. The union demanded that ICE explain “with absolute transparency to the country how it reached this situation” and how it will come up with long-term solutions to the energy shortage.