Belgium ‘Needs National Energy Strategy’: IEA
Belgium might have made “clear progress” with competitive gas and power markets, cut the use of fossil fuels and generally reduced the carbon intensity of the market, but “under any scenario, energy supply needs to be further diversified and energy demand further limited,” the International Energy Agency said May 19.
The current policy is to close the three nuclear power plants between 2022 and 2025, by which point they will be 50 years old. At the moment they account for half the country's power generation. Similar plants in the US have been allowed to run for 60 years, says operator Electrabel, part of French Engie. But nothing has been proposed to replace them.
Closing them down would “seriously challenge Belgium’s efforts to ensure electricity security and provide affordable low-carbon electricity. The phase-out schedule should be relaxed to let the plants run as long as the regulator considers them safe,” says the IEA.
Electrabel told NGE that it needed to know what the government was thinking regarding new supply, such as building more power connections with its neighbours or introducing a capacity mechanism to attract gas-fired plant. "Like any industry, we have to know what the context will be," it said. "It is not for us to say that the plants should keep running, the law says they must stop by 2025." Electrabel is continuing to invest in them, spending €600mn on the Tihange plant and €700mn on Doel 1 and 2 in ongoing operations.
The IEA's country report says that, "as in all IEA member countries, a major challenge for Belgium is to decarbonise the economy while ensuring security of supply and affordability of energy. A long-term approach is required, and, given that responsibility for energy policy is divided between the federal and regional governments, the authorities must work decisively together to form a national energy strategy.”
To attract critical investments in the energy sector – especially in electricity generation – the government should follow closely the principles of transparency, predictability and regulatory certainty, the IEA says, perhaps referring to last year's about-turn when in March 2015 the government cancelled a tender for gas-fired power generation capacity, a part of the plant to fill the supply-demand gap that was foreseen by former energy minister Melchior Wathelet.
Also, transport and buildings hold a large potential for efficiency and climate gains, and fiscal incentives and price signals could be used more frequently in order to reap them, it says.
On a positive note, the IEA said: “Belgium has excellent gas transport infrastructure, and its gas market is well-integrated with those of its neighbours. The country’s emergency oil stock levels are also high.”
William Powell