A blackout (apagón in Spanish) that affected a large part of the Central American isthmus, especially Panama and Nicaragua, left several communities in Costa Rica without electricity, mainly in Guanacaste, Limón and the metropolitan area of San José.
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) reported affected the areas of Las Cañas, La Virgen and Santa Rita, in the Chorotega region; Naranjo, Alto Castro and Rosario, in Huetar Norte, and Siquirres, in the Huetar Caribe region.
In San Jose, the ICE subsidiary, the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL) reported power cuts in some areas of Alajuelita, El Llano, La Union, Goicoechea, Zapote, Tibás and Desamparados.
The cuts in power in Costa Rica were a precuationary measure, at 2:17 pm Sunday, the ICE deciding to take the country offline from the Sistema de Interconexión Eléctrica de los Países de América Central (Siepac). the Electrical Interconnection System of the Central American Countries.
The last great regional blackout occurred on July 1, 2016, a problem that originated in Panama.
The Central American countries are interconnected by Siepac, which allows transactions in the Central American Electricity Market (MER).
By late Sunday evening, both ICE and the CNFL reported full power restored.
