The Costa Rica Electricity Institute expects to reestablish the service to all areas of the country by 6:30 p.m.
A blackout affected the country since 1:15 p.m. and apparently it was caused by a failure in the Regional Interconnected System, which also caused temporary problems for Nicaragua, Panama and even some areas of Guatemala.

According to the National Center of Energy Control at this hour (4 p.m.) most of the hydroelectric plants are back in operation. The service has been already reestablished to several communities in Puntarenas, Guanacaste, Alajuela and San José.

The service will return gradually and should be back to normal by 6:30 p.m.

The blackout caused interruption of services at the Juan Santamaría International Airport, and it also caused problems in the roads due to the traffic lights being out of service. Water service was also affected in some communities were the service depends on water pumps, however, the majority have generators to keep them running.

Hospitals and other services continue their operations normally with their backup systems.

The country had not suffered a complete black out since August 21 of 2001, back then the failure was caused a lightning that struck near the Cachí, Cartago hydroelectric plant.

The Costa Rica Electricity Institute and the National Power and Electricity Company has had a difficult week, since this past Wednesday and explosion followed by a fire affected the substation located in El Porvenir de Gravilias, Desamparados leaving 121,200 people without service.