COSTA RICA NEWS — The Ministro de la Presidencia (Chief of Staff), Melvin Jiménez, and the president of the state power utility, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Carlos Obregon, said the government will not support the Proyecto de Contingencia Eléctrica (Power Contingency Act) which would enable private power generation and force the state run power company to compete.
The statement was made before the Comisión de Asuntos Agropecuarios (Agricultural Affairs Committee).
Contingency Power Act raises the opening of the electricity market to all companies and forces ICE to compete.
Arguing that there is no need for it because ‘demand is being met,” the executive branch is opposing the Contingency Power Act because” … it would be contrary to the model of energy development in the country, contrary to what has been discussed in the discussion tables on energy.”
Jimenez told Crhoy.com that “… there is no need to have private generation, because there is no contingency situation, when Reventazón comes online, there will be an income. We have said that our vision is for private generation contracts to commit to 20 years, we believe there is a balanced level of participation and one that allows us to meet demand. ”
Obregon, added “… You can not justify an increase in private generation if you do not yet know the shape of the energy mix.”
Source: Crhoy.com
And what is not said is that ICE is a too powerful, even if unelected, political force. The elected government is showing a bow to that force. ICE has resisted meaningful competition in all areas of it’s operations – perhaps it knows that it’s over-paid and bloated bureaucracies cannot compete – perhaps it simply wants to hold on to it’s outsized power – perhaps both. It took CAFTA, with all it’s supporters and years of work, to put a dent in it’s power. It’s still resisting in the area of telecommunications in many subtle ways but it’s swimming against a strong tide of technology that rewards change and adaptation, not entrenched power bases.