The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad de Costa Rica is putting out to tender the acquisition of thirty nine valve regulated lead acid battery banks .
The state-owned power supplier wishes to acquire valve regulated lead acid stationary battery banks, to be used as a source of backup power in direct current equipment installed at the National Telecommunications System.
Prohibition of geothermal power generation in protected areas would be lifted by the two presidential candidates who are leading the polls.
Johnny Araya of the National Liberation Party (PLN by its initials in Spanish) and José María Villalta from the Broad Front (Frente Amplio) party, said they would allow the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) to explore geothermal energy in the Rincón de la Vieja National Park in Guanacaste.
The union for the sector is calling on the next government to review the management of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad and the creation of an Industrial Policy.
From a press release from the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica (ICRC):
During its annual review and expectations for 2014, the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica, ICRC said that this year the sector maintained behavior marked by ups and downs, which began with a clear recessionary trend, which was then reversed from April.
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad has consolidated its leading position in the market without having to return frequencies as initially conditioned by the Telecommunications Superintendency.
Nacion.com reports: "... the company specializing in cable television and broadband internet (via cable modem) services became part of Grupo ICE as a subsidiary company." The state run telecommunications company has not yet reported the amount of the commercial transaction.
A plan currently under analysis includes the purchase of power by state power generation companies.
In order to diversify sources of power generation, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is analyzing, together with 14 municipalities, a plan for the purchase of energy generated using waste.
If the proposal is made reality, the ICE would purchase power generated from waste produced by productive companies and with this meet the part of demand from the municipalities involved.
After the opening up of the telecommunications market, the number of postpaid cellular lines are down from 1.6 million in 2010 to 1.1 million as at the end of 2012.
Prepaid connections currently represent 80% of the lines that exist in the country, while two years ago the figure was barely 49%, according to a study by the Telecommunications Superintendency (Sutel).
The new network of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad started with initial coverage in 23% of the territory, with speeds from 6 to 10 Mbps.
According to the customer manager of Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Jaime Palermo, the service is focused on providing data to clients who wish to navigate at high speeds. Marketing will initially be done through Datacards.
The Japanese government has awarded a soft loan of $560 million to fund geothermal projects in the foothills of the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste.
From a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica:
The Chancellor, Enrique Castillo, and the Ambassador of Japan, Mamoru Shinohara, have signed an Exchange of Notes as a step towards formalizing the credit of approximately $560 million for geothermal projects in Guanacaste.
The Supreme Administrative Court has rejected a suit by Movistar to prevent the state telephone company using 2.6 GHz band to operate its 4G LTE network.
Telefónica, which operates under the Movistar brand, went to court in early October to seek a review of the band spectrum and specifically, "to defend an equitable distribution of the spectrum," said Matias Señorán, spokesman for the company in Costa Rica.
Industrialists are starting to look at transferring their plants to countries where energy costs are lower.
The high cost of electricity bills has caused some industries to look at moving their operations out of the country in the search for savings and competitiveness.
Corporación Yanber, a manufacturer of packaging for trade, industry and agriculture, decided to go to Nicaragua eight months ago, and other companies are evaluating the possibility of moving their operations to countries where the energy sector impinges less on the cost of their products.
The implementation of the regulations to harmonize the national and regional electricity markets is still pending.
Last May saw the publication of the Regulation on Regulatory Harmonization between the National Electricity Market and the Central American Electricity Market (MEN and MER, respectively). This established that the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) would communicate the decision which would be taken regarding the assignment of the system operator and market operator to the Regulatory Authority for Public Services (Aresep), 30 days after publication.
With its entry into force in late November, both the regulator as well as telephone companies predict fierce competition because of attempts to retain and attract customers.
"This law promotes stronger dynamism in the market and gives the user the power to negotiate what suits them. It requires companies to provide more service. It is a climate of true market competition," said Eduardo Castellon spokesman for the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (Sutel).
The Government has desisted from continuing with the projects for the opening of the electricity market because of a lack of agreement among stakeholders, unions and interested parties.
Nacion.com reports: "Five plans for an Electricity Law, a archived special committee on energy and an Electrical Contingency Act which has made no progress for one year and five months are evidence of the lack of support for the opening up of the energy market."
In Costa Rica the growing business is led by Tigo which has a 78% market share, Callmyway with 16%, Telecable with 5% and other companies with just 1%.
Recent studies by the Sutel show that the use of internet telephony has been making great strides. "While in the fourth quarter of 2010 there were 10 VoIP connections, two years later there were 18,144 such connections," explains Pablo Fonseca in Nacion.com.