Q COSTARICA — The state-owned Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) affirmed Thursday that Costa Rica has no plans to purchase energy from Panama and that it has sufficient resources to meet demand.
“Costa Rica does not have firm energy purchase contracts with Panama, so it is not currently importing electricity from that country and projects not doing so for the remainder of 2026,” ICE stated in a press release.
The statement comes following Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino’s announcement of the suspension of electricity sales to Costa Rica, after expressing surprise at the tone of the public complaints made by Costa Rica’s new president, Laura Fernández, regarding a bilateral trade dispute being resolved at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
While the Costa Rican government has not yet commented on the Panamanian president’s statements, ICE asserted that “the national electricity system has sufficient resources to meet Costa Rica’s electricity demand,” and maintained that energy transactions “are governed by technical regulations and market relations.”
Costa Rica is the largest energy exporter in Central America, with a 49.8% share of the total traded in the MER (Regional Electricity Market), followed by Guatemala (29.9%) and Panama (11%), according to the MER’s operational report.