Enel Begins Construction of Hydroelectric Plant in Costa Rica
First reported March 29, 2011 · Updated October 28, 2026
SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, March 29, 2011. Italian renewable-energy company Enel Green Power has begun construction of a 50-megawatt hydroelectric project in Costa Rica. The Chucás plant, located between the provinces of San José and Alajuela, is intended to expand the company’s generating capacity and provide additional electricity from the country’s river systems.
Enel announced the start of construction on March 28, 2011. The company expected the new station to produce approximately 219 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year after commissioning. That figure was a forecast based on the planned project, not an independently measured annual output.
The company projected that the station could supply energy comparable to the annual electricity needs of more than 81,000 households. It also estimated avoided emissions of more than 150,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, based on the electricity generation the hydro plant would replace. These projections depended on the final plant’s operation and the assumptions used for the electricity system.
A new project on the Tárcoles River
The Chucás project is in the Tárcoles River basin, between the cantons of Mora and Atenas. Its generating equipment is designed to use water flow to produce electricity without burning fossil fuel at the power station.
By early 2011, Enel Green Power was already involved in renewable generation in several Latin American countries. Its Costa Rica expansion formed part of a wider strategy involving hydroelectric and wind projects. The company initially expected Chucás to be finished by the middle of 2013 and projected that its installed generating capacity in Costa Rica would rise to 105 MW when the plant was added.
Hydropower was an established part of Costa Rica’s electricity system long before the announcement. For a country with mountainous terrain and significant annual rainfall, rivers provided an important domestic energy resource. At the same time, hydroelectric construction requires engineering assessments of flooding, geology, river conditions and local environmental impacts. Long construction schedules can change when those conditions prove different from earlier surveys.
Who would operate the plant?
The project was developed under a build-operate-transfer arrangement involving the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, or ICE. Under the agreement, a project company would develop and operate the generating facility and eventually transfer it to ICE after the contractual operating period. The commercial structure helped bring private construction and operational capacity into Costa Rica’s electricity system while maintaining a long-term role for the national utility.
The project company, P.H. Chucás S.A., later became involved in disputes about construction delays and additional expenses. Those developments occurred after the original announcement and should be distinguished from the expectations available in March 2011.
What happened next
Chucás did not meet the original mid-2013 completion target. Both Enel’s subsequent corporate records and specialist hydropower reporting identify the plant as a 50 MW facility that began operating in late 2016. The construction delays led to commercial disputes between the project company and ICE. The later operational status is the verified outcome; the 2013 date was only an initial forecast.
Questions and answers
Where is Chucás? In the Tárcoles River basin between San José and Alajuela provinces.
How much capacity was planned? 50 MW, the capacity confirmed for the operating plant.
Did Chucás open in 2013? No. The project began operating in late 2016.