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No More
Power Failures ICE President Promises
The
Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE)
said yesterday that it has signed a contract to
lease some 90 mini thermal generating plants
that will go into service next January, while it
continues to negotiate work on important
projects.
Pedro Pablo Quirós, president of ICE, said that
the mini plants being leased from Alston Rental
Enterprise that will generate some 90 megawatts
of electrical power and avoid the blackouts
experienced during the last "dry" season.
The cost of the lease is us$26 million dollars
for a period of 18 months, the time it needs to
prepare bids for the construction and
installation of permanent electrical generating
plants.
The Contraloría General de la República
(Comptroller's office) has given its approval to
the lease contract as well as the additional
purchases the Institución needs to make.
Quirós emphasized that the rental is only a
temporary solution and by 2010 ICE expects to
have online three permanent generating plants
that will produce 228 megawatts more than the
current and by 2016 it should have finished a
mega generating station that will produce more
than 600 megawatts of electrical power.
The ICE president assured that the problems
experienced this year will not recur in 2008 and
that in the coming months the Cariblanco plant
will be completely repaired and begin to
generate power.
The problems at the Cariblanco and plants in
Puntarenas and Moín, Limón, added to the low
water levels at the hydro generating plants,
were the cause of the blackouts and electrical
power rationing that was felt throughout the
country.
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