About ESPH - The Heredia Public Services Company

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The company was formed in 1949 as a public utility in order to distribute electricity to Heredia, and was called the City of Heredia Electrical Service Adminstration Council. Prior to this date, the company was involved in the construction of the Carillos Hydroelectric Plant. (full history available in Spanish PDF file https://www.esph-sa.com/pls/portal/url/ITEM/3967D8A1E32F565EE040A8C0040225CC )

In the 1970s there was a severe problem with water, due to bad administration of the aqueduct and rapid growth in the province. The quality of the water was not acceptable, plus the system was not able to meet the demands at peak times. The water system was under the administration of the city government, which under the pressure of the crisis, and lacking funds to invest in needed improvements, took the action of transferring the administration of the system to the National Waterworks System (now the AyA).

Sectors of the Heredia population opposed the move, and formed a local users association, believing that having a locally managed water system was preferable. After months of protests, litigation and debate, the AyA, Municipality and protesters, agree to transfer the administration to Heredia Electrical company, which took over permanent administration of the waterworks. In view of the expanded responsibilities the company was converted to a corporation called the Heredia Public Services Company in March of 1976.

In this sense, ESPH was born to resolve a social conflict, and as a non-profit corporation has always kept foremost the needs of the communities it serves to have quality services, regardless of the population level or profitability of providing services to sparsely populated areas.

This socially responsible focus, has lead ESPH to create several innovative programs in the ensuing years. Today, every user pays in their water bill 3.80 colones per cubic meter of water consumed, this is called a hydro rate and funds collected are invested in environmental services and reforestation in the areas that are adjacent to Heredia and the water sources that provide power or drinking water to the community. This project was the first of its kind in Costa Rica, and also in Latin America.

The Smart Heredia project is a natural extension of the ESPH's push into telecommunications, made possible by the opening of Costa Rica's market under the CAFTA agreement (locally known as the TLC). Telecommunications is a good fit, since the company already has the infrastructure in place to provide electricity, any necessary wiring has rights of way already available. In addition, the company has billing and collection systems already covering the population. With the implementation of the fiber optic network for Heredia, the company is also taking measures to allow high speed Internet required by institutions in the area to benefit the population as a whole through its Smart Heredia Project. ( read more in the related article: The Smart Heredia Project Outline )