At an early stage, ICE absorbed a company set up in 1941, the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), which was itself the result of the merger of three private companies. As a result of this privileging of public ownership rather than private capital, ICE and CNFL together comprise what is now known as the ICE Group.
In the mid-1960s, partial authorisation was given to the Administrative Board of the Cartago Municipal Electricity Service (JASEC) for power generation, distribution and supply, and in the mid-1970s the Heredia Public Services Company (ESPH) was created. The latter is a municipal company that distributes electricity, provides street lighting, drinking water and sanitation services, and has also become involved in electricity generation. These two municipal enterprises have relatively small installed capacity and the power they generate operates mainly as a backup supply. In their role as distribution companies, they do not compete with the ICE Group, but have assigned territories that they serve exclusively. Despite occasional disputes, coordination and the logic of cooperation and complementarity prevail.
Rural electrification cooperatives have also existed since the 1960s. The cooperatives operating today are COOPESANTOS, COOPELESCA, COOPEALFARORUIZ and COOPEGUANACASTE. Together, they cover about 400,000 users and 20 per cent of Costa Rica’s territory. They are not-for-profit entities and reinvest their earnings in improving and expanding operations. Some have expanded their business activities to other sectors such as telecommunications and drinking water. In 1989, they set up a consortium called CONELECTRICAS R.L. for the purpose of defending the interests of the cooperative sector and strengthening the cooperatives’ operations. In 2013, COOPELESCA was the first energy company in Latin America to obtain ‘carbon neutral’ certification, and since 2015 it has been implementing a strong policy to mitigate the negative impacts of electricity generation, as well as supporting community initiatives.3
In contrast to some experiences elsewhere, the cooperatives in Costa Rica have a strong public service vocation. A clear example of this was seen during the ‘ICE Combo’ privatisation attempts in the 2000s, when the electricity cooperatives were among the defenders of ICE as a state-owned enterprise.4
Costa Rica’s public power model, consisting of a vertically integrated company covering three quarters of the sector, a subsidiary, plus two municipal enterprises and four cooperatives, has shaped the success story of the country’s electricity system. In the last few years the municipal enterprises and the rural cooperatives have together accounted for about 20 per cent of electricity sales, with relatively similar market shares. This illustrates their importance within the sector.
For those who see energy democracy as synonymous with decentralisation and small-scale operations, the presence of ICE as a vertically integrated state-owned enterprise that governs most of the electricity system is uncomfortable. The opposite is the case for those who associate energy democracy with large-scale, publicly-owned and vertically integrated monopolies, as they may see the existence of the back-up municipal enterprises and rural electricity cooperatives as a deviation from the model. However, the Costa Rican experience demonstrates the potential for linking these two models of energy democracy in a coordinated way, with demonstrable success.
The system’s main weakness is limited popular participation in decision-making. There has been some progress around popular dialogue in recent years, in response to significant social protests against hydropower projects. The credit for this is due to the protests organised at the local level rather than to ICE itself. There have also been attempts to make ICE’s management more responsive to the needs of local communities, for example in how it manages the waste from dams and reservoirs.