Costa Rica’s Power Outage Puzzle: Equipment Failures, Voltage Issues, and Human Factors
Why the Lights Go Out
Power outages are a common occurrence in Costa Rica, with homes and businesses experiencing an average of 10 interruptions last year. The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) reported that 87% of these interruptions were due to voltage problems in the service.
The main causes of outages were equipment failures, voltage issues, and incidents like tree branches or animals coming into contact with power lines. Surprisingly, human activity accounted for 12% of interruptions, with vehicle collisions being a significant factor.
Aresep’s evaluation program, based on international standards, revealed that adjustment problems in distribution transformers were the primary cause of service disruptions. The data collected included the average frequency and duration of interruptions, with a focus on incidents lasting more than five minutes.
Suppliers ranking
The Aresep measured the average failures of each service provider during 2020, based on the frequency of interruptions experienced per subscriber:
- CoopeAlfaroRuiz, an average of 2.3 interruptions
- Jasec 4.9
- ESPH 8.2
- Coopelesca 9.2
- ICE (direct) 9.5
- CNFL (ICE affiliatate) 10.2
- CoopeSantos 11.4
- CoopeGuanacaste 12.6
Link to ARESEP’s provider’s contact/social media Electricity rationing – ARESEP
