As Lake Arenal swells, ICE has more electricity than it knows what to do with

(ICR Archive)

August 10^th, 2015 (ICR News) Lake Arenal – the country’s largest hydroelectric reservoir is full.  Really full.  In fact, it is nearly 30 feet (9 meters) deeper than forecasts by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) said it would be this time of year.

The extra water – caused by unusually intense rainfall this year – means that ICE has a lot of spare capacity to produce electricity, but that electricity needs to be generated – and sold – before the level of the lake goes back to normal.

That spare capacity could be worth between $30 million and $50 million USD, Carlos Roldan, a researcher with the Costa Rican Technology Institute (TEC), told CRHoy.com.

ICE spokesperson Luis Pacheco told CRHoy.com that ICE is implementing a plan to take advantage of the swelling reservoir to generate additional electricity for export onto the grid serving neighboring countries like Panama and Nicaragua.

Last month, Costa Rica exported 50,000 MWh, Roldan said, and if the trend continues the country could export 250,000 MWh by the end of the year.

Roldan said that if transmission lines to Panama and Nicaragua were expanded, the country could export between $750 million and $1.1 billion worth of energy between 2016 and 2020, adding that domestic demand typically grows less than 2%.

Despite the excess capacity, however, ICE requested a rate hike of 13.7% to regulator ARESEP last week.