The outage plan The outage plan

The outage plan

Limit the impact on your business

Read all about it

What if the light goes out in your company?

This winter we may face a serious power shortage in our country. If that happens, the government may activate the so-called outage plan as a last resort. The power then goes out for a few hours in certain regions to avoid a total blackout. But don't worry, you don't have to be in the dark. We will be happy to tell you all about it.

All about the outage plan

The outage plan is a last resort that the government can use in the event of a serious power shortage to avoid a general power failure. This means that certain areas in the country are left without power for a few hours until the balance on the grid is restored. How does a shutdown plan work and how is your company involved? We would like to explain this in our blog (Dutch or French).

Do you want specific questions answered right away?

How do you limit the impact?

Announced or not: it's always a good idea to prepare your company for a power failure. This way you can limit the impact on your company and you will be operational again quickly. There are measures you can take:

  • before power failure
  • during power failure
  • after power failure
Discover our tips

Prevention is better than cure

As a larger power consumer, you can help prevent a shutdown by limiting your consumption during peak periods (mainly on working days between approximately 16:00 hours and 20:00 hours). If you have a tele-read meter, you can even receive an interesting compensation for the power save.

Read all about it

Stay informed

At www.power-in-balance.be you can check the state of the electricity grid at any time. Or download the Elia 4Cast app (Apple & Google Play) and get alerts on your smartphone or tablet.

Would you like to receive a special edition of our newsletter as soon as there is a risk of a shutdown? Leave your details and we will take care of it.

Be warned

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Everything you need to know about the outage plan.

More questions and answers can be found here.

 

Elia, the Belgian transmission system operator, has developed a general shutdown plan that can be activated automatically in the event of an incident on the high-voltage grid or manually in the event of a power shortage. The purpose of such a shutdown is to maintain the balance of the network in order to avoid a general blackout of the country's electricity supply.

The shutdown plan is therefore an emergency measure that the government will only activate if other measures, such as energy-saving measures, are insufficient.

Would you like to know more about our electricity supply, power scarcity and the shutdown plan? You can read more about it on the following websites:

Our blog provides your with tips and advice to prevent the impact of a shutdown on your company.

The transmission system operator Elia has divided our country into 8 shutdown tranches, numbered from 8 to 1, according to the distribution points. There is also a tranche 0: companies in this tranche are never shut down.

The 8 tranches do not correspond to geographical zones: a tranche contains municipalities from different parts of the country and a municipality - or even the same street - can be supplied by distribution points that are served by different power cabins. The situation can also change under the influence of, for example, work on the distribution network.

The Ministers of Energy and Economy decide on the eve of a possible deficit which tranche(s) to shut down, a priori during peak hours to avoid a general blackout.

In principle, only one tranche is shut down, but if the shortage becomes too large, multiple tranches can be shut down, in descending order, tranche 7, 6, 5 and so on.

A shutdown takes place in 4 steps:

Step 1: Elia interrupts specific connections between the transmission system and the distribution system (transformer stations) and informs the grid operators of the tranche or tranches they have to shut down.

Step 2: Distribution system operators shut down all customers in the affected tranches with the exception of priority customers. Priority customers are hospitals, emergency call centres and the network operators' own stations.

Step 3: Elia restores the connections. Electricity is now only supplied to priority customers.

Step 4: As soon as there is sufficient power again, the grid operators switch on the affected zones one by one.

Want to know more? Watch this short film of Synergrid, the Belgian Federation of Grid Operators.

You can check whether your company is included in the shutdown plan on the website of your distribution system operator:

Flanders:

Wallonia:

Brussels:

The Brussels Region remains largely outside the scope of the shutdown plan, with the exception of a few streets in Ukkel.

On the website of the VREG (Flanders) and the CWaPE (Wallonia) you can easily find which grid operator you are affiliated with.

Attention: if your company is in a shutdown zone, this does not necessarily mean that you will actually be shut down. Much depends on the way the grids are connected at that moment and whether or not the cabin you are connected to remains in service.