Rains will allow low of 7% in thermal generation

Reservoirs exceed estimate of ICE, which could lead to reduced rates

October 05th,2014.

ICE could reduce, by about 7%, the projected thermal generation in 2015, if the rainfall is steady in the last quarter of this year.To launch the estimate, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) took as reference the current status of major reservoirs and compared with the calculated level in recent months.

The results reveal that the El Niño exercised less impact than expected, allowing plants to get more out of renewable sources.

Luis Pacheco, manager of the ICE, said it was too early to determine whether this actually lead to a reduction in electricity rates for users, because, according to studies, the effects of El Niño still do not stop.

"We hope the weather pattern over the next two months to ratify our forecast: by 2015 there would be a decrease in thermal generation close to 7%, which impacts the cost of electricity," said Pacheco.

Gabriela Chinchilla's (IMN) National Meteorological Institute reported that for the last quarter of normal rainfall scenario is projected.

October is usually the wettest month - for the Pacific and Central-Valley while December is the driest period.

Hydric State. Arenal Reservoir exceeded expectations: 29 September, the largest dam in the country recorded a level of 538 meters above sea level (masl), rather than the 536 meters that ICE planned for that week.

This despite that lack of rain, ripped the year with a reserve of less than in the last seven years water.

The low water mark set for this plant is 525 meters. Arenal has installed capacity of 330 megawatts (MW) and provided 627 million kilowatt hours (kWh) to the National Electricity System (SEN) in the 2013 capacity.

Meanwhile, the dam of the hydroelectric Pirrís was further surpassing expectations ICE: 29 September registered a level of 1,203 meters instead of 1,169 m calculated by the Institute.

Pirrís, located in the Los Santos is the country's third largest plant, in operation since 2011 and has a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters (m³).

That plant records a power of 134 MW and in 2013 generated over 450 million kWh.

Meanwhile, according to data from September, Angostura Reservoir in Turrialba Cartago, exceeded two meters (m) expectations.

Angostura has an installed capacity of 180 MW and is the second most energy generated in the country. In 2013, contributed 738 million kWh to meet demand.

The case is different for Cachi because the level of the dam started to decline since early July because it is undergoing maintenance and expansion. The idea is to grow the ICE power of 105 MW to 158 MW.

Read more: 'La Nación'