The biggest hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica and in fact all Central America, Reventazon, a mega-project that was inaugurated just close to a year and a half ago will remain shut down for at least six months to fix a “strong water leak” present in the rock massif of the dam’s spillway.

The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE), company in charge of this project, confirmed the existence of a crack from which as much of 180 liters of water per second are leaked, which was first mentioned in a report presented by the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) which estimated the cost to repair the damages in close to US $15.5 million.

ICE began to lower the level of the reservoir since the beginning of February and this past February 15 the plant stopped supplying energy to the National Electric System (SEN).

According to the technical information disclosed initially, the hydroelectric plant was expected to resume operations by May 14; however, an update stated that the repair work will extend through at least August 22.

In a six month period, the Reventazon plant contributes 507 gigawatts of electricity which is equivalent to approximately US$75 million calculated on a unit cost per kilowatt of $0.14 as indicated in the Electric Generation Expansion Plan 2016-2035 of ICE.

The construction of this plant began in 2010 and had the participation of 4300 workers for 6 years. It required 29,000 tons of steel, and 760,000 cubic meters of concrete.

According to ICE, shutting down the Reventazon plant will not cause any problems for the national supply of electricity, “The stability, diversification and backup of the Costa Rican electric model allow for Reventazon or any other plan in the system to be temporary taken out of operation without causing alterations in the country’s electricity supply. The diagram of generation for this period of time will depend on the availability of resources, and as usual, ICE will prioritize the use if renewable sources”, explained ICE.