Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) . State-owned company located in San José , which since 1963 has provided electricity and telecommunications services in Costa Rica and is part of the ICE Group together with Radiografica Costarricense SA (RACSA) and the Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL). With more than 59 years of experience in the market, it is the leading state-owned company in telecommunications and electricity solutions in Costa Rica.
Summary
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- 1 History of the Electric Sector
- 1 First steps towards electricity
- 2Grupo ICE
- 3 Costa Rican Institute of Electricity
- 4 Related Links
- 5 Sources
History of the Electricity Sector
In 1851 the main streets of the city of San José were lit with kerosene or kerosene lamps; As urban growth progressed and the damage that time had caused to the poles was accentuated, it became more evident that this system was obsolete and the urgency of establishing a new service, in accordance with the demands of commerce and industry, increased.
After this urgency, the electric service was inaugurated in San José in 1884 , just two years after the city of New York was illuminated .
First steps towards electricity
Luis Batres García-Granados (the first electrical entrepreneur in Costa Rica), was born in Guatemala City in 1845 , a direct descendant of peninsulares who held administrative positions for the Spanish Crown in Guatemala.
He arrives in Costa Rica after the fall of the reformist government of Miguel García-Granados (1871-1873). In 1883 he undertook, in the company of another great visionary: Manuel Víctor Dengo, one of his most monumental works: the first Electric Company of Costa Rica, which built the first hydroelectric plant and commercially exploited the electric service.
ICE Group
Created in 1949 , the Costa Rican holding company Grupo ICE controls electricity generation, transmission and distribution assets, and also operates in the telecommunications sector . It has a total installed capacity of 1,939.37MW, equivalent to 79.27% of the national total, owns 100% of the country’s transmission system and distributes electricity to 39% of the population. Regarding the area of telecommunications, it has a telephone coverage of 95% of the Costa Rican population. It offers national telephony services through both mobile and fixed lines, public telephony, international telephony and Internet connection through ICE Telecomunicaciones.
Costa Rican Institute of Electricity
- creation
The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) was created by Decree – Law No.449 of April 8, 1949 as an autonomous institution, with legal personality and its own assets. It is endowed with full autonomy and administrative, technical and financial independence. ICE is responsible, through its companies, for developing, executing, producing and marketing all types of public electricity and telecommunications services, as well as complementary activities or services.
Its creation was the result of a long struggle of several generations of Costa Ricans who tried to definitively solve the problems of the shortage of electrical energy presented in the 1940s and in accordance with national sovereignty, in the field of exploitation of natural resources. hydroelectric plants in the country.
- Objectives
As primary objectives, ICE must develop, in a sustainable manner, the existing energy production sources in the country and provide the electricity service. In turn, it is in charge of developing and providing telecommunications services, in order to promote the greatest well-being of the country’s inhabitants and strengthen the national economy.
- Functions
As the Institution in charge of the development of electrical energy production sources in the country, it was entrusted with the following functions:
– Solve the problem of electricity shortage in the country, through the construction and commissioning of more hydroelectric power plants, with their corresponding distribution networks.
– Promote the development of the country through the use of electrical energy as a source of driving force.
– Seek the rational use of natural resources and put an end to their destructive and indiscriminate exploitation.
– Preserve and defend the hydraulic resources of the country, through the protection of basins, sources, riverbeds and water currents .
– Make its technical, administrative and financial procedures models of efficiency capable of guaranteeing the proper functioning of the Institute and serving as a standard for other Costa Rican activities.
Hydroelectric power plant, sponsored by ICE”
Later, in 1963 and through Law No. 3226, the Legislative Assembly conferred a new objective on ICE: the establishment, improvement, extension and operation of telephone, radiotelegraph and radiotelephone communications services in the national territory. Three years later, it installed the first automatic telephone exchanges and, from then on, telecommunications began to develop.
ICE did not absorb the foreign company from the beginning; both systems coexisted until 1967. But it is clear that from its creation, the country was able to direct its electrical development according to its own social and economic needs.
Historically, it has always been able to satisfy the country’s internal demand and has exported electricity to Nicaragua and Panama . However, in the summer of 2007 , the lack of rain caused a sharp drop in the production of energy in the hydroelectric plants, which forced the country to cut electricity. for a few weeks. With the arrival of winter the situation normalized.
Over time, it has evolved as a corporate group of state-owned companies, made up of ICE itself (Electricity and Telecommunications Sectors) and its companies: Radiografica Costarricense SA (RACSA) and Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz SA (CNFL), which have traced their path, through various modernization projects developed in recent decades.
In 1994 RACSA began marketing the Internet service in the country. In 1999 , the RACSA-Zurquí Satellite Teleport was inaugurated, which through 3 different parabolic antennas allowed international communication of RACSA services via satellites.
In 2003, a second international connection was inaugurated via the Arcos 1 fiber optic submarine cable , so that most international accesses are made via a vibra-optic submarine cable, which guarantees better connectivity.