Cachí Power Plant Back to Full Capacity Thanks to the Heavy Rains
Any chances of more power failures during the coming months were washed away with heavy rains of the past several days, filling the Cachí hydro electric generating station reservoir in Cartago to optimum levels, meaning the generators are now working at full capacity.

The heavy rains allowed the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) to open the floodgates to level out the reservoir, as the waters from the Reventazón river filled the lagoon.

The Cachí was one of several power generating stations that suffered low production levels causing the blackouts and rotating power cuts last month.

The Cachí became also the subject of controversy when area residents claim to have seen ICE empty the reservoir causing the blackouts and power rationing. ICE denied such actions and maintained that the floodgates, during the rationing, were opened only once to allow water to the La Angostura plant, which was also suffering from low water levels.

Cachí was built some 40 years ago and produces 5% of the electrical energy in the country.

However, the Cachí water levels were not the only cause of the power shortages. A report shows that the thermal generating plant in Moín, Limón, failed 95 times before the blackouts, before one of the turbines completely collapsed on April 3.

The Moín III plant was finished in 2003 built by the Japanese company, Marubeni. The plant was built specifically at the request of the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL), an ICE subsidiary.

The report shows that since the installation the plant has failed a number fo times and many of the failures were repetitive.

While Cachí produces 180 Megawatts of power, Moín III produces only 40 Megawatts, suing diesel power turbines.

The main problems at Moín III were due to contaminated oils and constant leaks, allowing the plant to operate at only 30% capacity, compounded by the fact that Marubeni took up to more than a year to fix some of the reported problems.

The problems at the plant came to a head in April when turbine number 9 completely failed and with problems at Cachí and three other plants, the electrical production levels dropped, causing power failures and rationing