|
 So what happens when a power turbine fails, oil generators don't work and the power transfer lines apparently break? A nationwide BLACKOUT, as experienced Thursday night (March 19th) around 7:50 PM in Costa Rica.
That's right no exaggeration here, ICE the national power company managed to leave the entire country without power for an entire hour last night and San Jose (the Capital of Costa Rica) was without power for over two and a half hours!
Since leaving the entire country without power wasn't enough, this morning once again part of the country was without power and the situation according to national news is severe.
This power failure continues in the majority of San Jose! Many offices are closed up and employees are more then happy to receive an extended weekend. Currently ICE claims there is not enough power output to meet the country demand. Their solution is to rotate the active power grids throughout the city.
The last time a national power failure occurred was in 2001 and according to national sources only lasted for 20 minutes.
 ICE currently holds a monopoly in Costa Rica for power, internet, telephones and mobile service. This monopoly is one of the many reasons people in Costa Rica feel the TLC (a free trade agreement presented by the United States) would benefit Costa Rica.
Protest against the TLC have been wide spread in Costa Rica since it is believed that this would leave many Costa Ricans without work and less than 2 months ago 150,000 people gathered in San Jose to protest against the TLC.
Rumors spread that this is simply retaliation towards the TLC, the funny part about that is if some worker actually found a way to sabotage all this equipment to fail at the same time in 3 different parts of the country he would only strengthen the case for the TLC as it will provide significant evidence as to why having free trade and competition in the country is a great thing. If in a couple weeks we see a TLC campaign pointing out this incident it will most likely be suggested that TLC supporters were the cause of this power failure. Coincidental timing to say the least!
|
Comment by GUEST on 2007-04-23 11:10:06
Free trade and competition will not improve at all the quality of service, -any service,- because, only the "Free Trade" of the sentence will apply. In a market the size of this country the only way to make it profitable is becoming a private monopoly, just as it happened in most the Latinamerican Countries that sold its utilities to private operators. Blackouts are more common in Nicaragua now than they were before, and so is happening is most of the countries. Besides that, one hour to restore power it´s a record by all standards. Just remember how many hours customers were left in the dark in New York recently, and how many days were left without service in the 2003 during the the blackout that affected millions and millions of user both in Canada and USA. One of the reasons why INTEL chose Costa Rica -for its most successful plant in the world- was the quality of service in electricity. Also many small operators in some regions of the USA provide services that makes ICE service and availability looks like impeccable. The de-regulation that TLC or CAFTA will bring, already happened in the USA and Canada with cost increase for all the services. Remember that the only reason Corporations exist for is to make money. If a region is not profitable, then is of no use for them, then, forget about putting service and privatization together in the same sentence. Investing money in some virgin beaches of Costa Rica will cost investors millions of Dollars because a private operator will find the cost/benefit ratio to small to deploy the needed infrastructure to provide the service all the contrary ICE does nowadays, when even the humblest of homes have electricity, now matter how isolated it is. One last word: Have you tried to switch your cable operator from Cabletica to Amnet recently? Well, you can´t they just splitted the territory for nor compitting with each other. Some example of free trade!! |
Comment by GUEST on 2007-05-04 13:35:33
Most tourist areas are not very affected by this for several reasons; I.C.E. has limited itself to shutting off power in more residential and metropolitan areas, the tourist spots are pretty much left alone. Many tourist oriented companies have generators to keep the electricity running. The blackout is strictly a temporary situation that should be resolved shortly, rainy season starts in May and extends into November or December, meaning it should begin to rain in the next few days, thus the reservoirs can return to full functioning capacity. If you are planning a trip in the next while to Costa Rica there is no need to cancel it. |
Comment by GUEST on 2007-05-07 09:21:08
Many think that the blackouts have to do with the denial of a rate increase to the ICE, but no one can prove that theory. But as of today, supposedly there will be no more blackouts or electricity rationing. So now you can travel and live worry free. Hurrah for rain! |
Comment by GUEST on 2007-07-13 18:06:10
Costa Rica is much better now , even with all of the propaganda against the Ice, at least los Costarricenses can afford to paid the electrical bill, wait til the TLC pass and the Big Corporations take over, the costarricans will suffer with the high bills they will have to [pay. |
|
Info & Facts 