REGIONAL
Reservoir levels rise as rainy season opens early across Costa Mar
The R??o Esperanto catchment received above-average rainfall in the first three weeks of May, lifting storage at the Cascada Verde dam to sixty-eight percent.
Mateo Reyes698 wordsEdition № 4vendredo, la 22-a de Majo 2026 — Eldono № 4
The Cascada Verde reservoir, which supplies the majority of Costa Mar's electricity through the Federally managed R??o Esperanto hydroelectric system, stood at sixty-eight percent of capacity on Thursday morning ??? fourteen percentage points above the seasonal average for the third week of May. The reading follows three weeks of steady rainfall across the upper catchment shared with Tierra Verde.
The Costa Mar Energy Directorate said the improved storage level means the region enters the rainy season with a comfortable buffer, reducing the likelihood of the demand-management advisories that were issued during a dry spell in November 2025. At that time, the reservoir fell to thirty-nine percent and large commercial consumers were asked to shift energy-intensive operations to overnight hours.
The R??o Esperanto system is jointly governed by Costa Mar and Tierra Verde under a federal compact signed in 2019. Water allocation decisions are made by the Federally appointed R??o Esperanto Compact Authority, whose secretariat sits in Meridiano. Both regions draw from the same catchment but operate separate distribution grids that are linked by a cross-regional tie line rated at 120 megawatts.
Energy Directorate officials said they would monitor rainfall forecasts closely through June before deciding whether to release surplus water downstream for ecological flow obligations or to hold storage in anticipation of the mid-season dry break that climatologists expect in July. A decision on that question will shape electricity tariffs for the second half of the year.
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