Quantcast
Channel: puravidaenergysystems.com » San Jose
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Electricity Rates on the Rise

0
0

Electricity Rates in Costa Rica25 Year System Warranty

April 1st, 2014 saw the second rate increase this year for electricity consumers in Costa Rica. This increase of about 7% follows the increase on January 1st of another 7%. So far this year rates have increased over 14% in just four months. Now is the time to purchase your new solar energy system from Pura Vida Energy Systems!!

Don’t be fooled by ups and downs in electricity rates! In 2013 there was a massive rate increase in May  of about 24% for most consumers. This was justified by projected shortfalls in rain that would affect hydro production and high prices for diesel and bunker fuel used to fire generators that currently support the national energy grid. In October ARESEP reduced the rates by around 18% because the rain was better than expected this season. The year-over-year price increase was still about 5%, despite this widely publicized rate “reduction”.  Considering the 15 year average rate increase is still above 14% each year, this year’s overall increase of 5% is pretty good, but no one expects current rates to stay this low.  The over all trend in Costa Rica is always upward because our population growth here always exceeds the expansion of production capacity. Now that the global economic recession is easing and construction is on the rise again it is obvious that more people will be choosing to move to beautiful Costa Rica. You can be part of the solution to higher energy rates by installing your own distributed energy production system today.  The government continues to make the right choices to support distributed production because they understand as we do that solar energy can help reduce or eliminate the need for those fossil fuel generators and return Costa Rica to a 100% renewable energy sourced national energy grid.

Prices for electricity in Costa Rica have doubled approximately every 5 years during the last 20 years.  The average annual increase was 16.3% from 1995 to 2010 and 12.7% from 2000 to 2010.  Unfortunately, since 2010 the government was forced to begin using a bunker-fuel generator in Puntarenas to assist renewable energy production facilities in meeting the needs of the people.  Last year ICE spent close to 20% of its budget buying fossil fuels like diesel and bunker fuel for peak demand generators. Those fossil fuel purchases represented 20% of ICE’s costs but were used to produce only 7.5% of the electricity used in Costa Rica.  As this trend continues it is easy to see that the rates ICE charges will have to continue to increase just as they have.

Projections for growth indicate that by 2021 the amount of energy produced by fossil fuel generators in Costa Rica may be as high as 28%.  It is for this reason that the government is finally embracing distributed renewable energy production after many years of maintaining a strict government monopoly.  After all, if it takes 20% of the budget to make 7% of the energy then it would take 80% of the budget to make 28% of the energy.  Obviously the rest of the production facilities would still need to be maintained and operated, so the only option would be enormous rate increases to cover the extra expense.

Grid-tied solar energy production has the potential to replace those fossil fuel generators and help Costa Rica return to a 100% renewable national energy grid.  For many years the fact that 100% of the electricity used in Costa Rica was generated by renewable sources was a point of pride as well as a marketing tool for the tourism and relocation industries.  By investing in solar energy production for your home or business you can help Costa Rica meet its energy needs as it continues to grow. At the same time you can save money every month even at today’s rates while helping to slow the rate of increases for those rates in the future.

 


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images