30 November 2020
Adequacy study for Belgium : no need for strategic reserve for winter 2021-22
On 30 November Elia has published its probabilistic analysis of Belgium’s adequacy situation for the winter 2021-22, an important element for the Federal Minister for Energy to take into account when deciding on the required volume of strategic reserve.
The report provides a probabilistic assessment of Belgium's security of supply for next winter (2021-22) under consulted hypotheses as required by the Electricity Act. The report also gives a preliminary outlook for subsequent winters in 2022-23 and 2023-24. In addition to the 'base case' scenario, Elia performed a sensitivity analysis, incorporating high impact events (with a low probability) on the availability of nuclear generation in Belgium & France and evaluated the corresponding need for a strategic reserve.
As previous years, Elia makes its recommendation based on this sensitivity. The European Commission's DG Competition approved such an approach within the context of the state aid review of the strategic reserve mechanism. As this scenario leads to a margin of 0 MW for Belgium for next winter (2021-22), it does not induce a need for constituting a strategic reserve for that winter.
As next step, the Federal Energy Administration will provide its advice to the Minister by December 15th. Consequently, the Federal Minister for Energy will decide by 15 January 2021 upon the need of a strategic reserve.
