No More Power Cuts, Arias Details Plans For Future
Following almost two weeks of daily rationing of electrical power, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) said the days of power cuts are over as it said on Thursday. At least for now.

Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, yesterday made the official announcement yesterday during the inauguration of the Cariblanco hydro-electric generating plant in Sarapiquí.

The president said the decision to end the rotating blackouts was made following a inspection of the hydro-electric plants and their reservoir water levels which are risen over the last couple of days due to the rains.

Pedro Pablo Quirós, president of ICE, confirmed the words of president Arias, saying the Cachí reservoir levels have risen almost 10 metres in the last two days and the Angostura levels are at maximum operation.

The low production at Cachí plant was the major source of the rationing.

However, Quirós added that the rotating blackouts could be back is the rain does not continue. "The weather forecasts are getting more and more precise, and they say the rain will continue", said Quirós,

ICE now has the challenge ahead of avoiding more power blackouts.

President Arias said yesterday that the Diquis feasibility study, an initiative that has been on the books for the last 36 years, will soon become a reality and with the aid for the Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (BCIE), ICE will have us$10 million dollars to carry out the analysis.

If all goes well, the new hydro-eletric generating plant could be online by 2016, which experts say that the country will be using up twice the power it is using now. Diquis will cost some us$1.4 billion dollars and can generate 640 Megawatts of electrical power.

The plant will be located in the Diquis Valley of Costa Rica which is better known for the home of strange and wonderful pre-Columbian Stones Spheres.

Other projects ahead of Diquis are hydro-electric generating plants at Reventazón and Pacuare generating 300 and 240 megawatts respectively. More plants could be built at Saavergre and Sixaola.

Estimates are that ICE has to invest some us$300 million dollars annually to maintain a sustained supply of electrical power.