The commissioning of the hydropower plant Reventazón, located at Siquirres de Limón, has provided for the shut down of two thermoelectric plants in the last three years.
The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) decided to suspend operations of Moin I thermal plant, which contributed to 1 percent of the total production of energy. The 36 workers who worked at the thermoelectric were relocated to other facilities of the public company.
ICE still has 7 active thermal plants that are used as backup when renewables energies lower their production.
Reventazón is the largest hydroelectric plant in Central America. Costa Rica produces 75 percent of its energy from hydroelectricity.
Import costs of energy fuel were cut to 10,434 million colones in 2015 from 112,881 million colones in 2014. This represented savings of 100,000 million colones in electricity bills for customers, according to ICE.
Source: La Nación.