Citing an “extremely unfavourable economic context”, EDF Luminus has announced the permanent closure of four of its gas power plants in Belgium. Run-time hours of these plants had decreased to a point that rendered operation uneconomic – use of coal power to balance renewables tends to be cheaper in several EU countries, including Belgium.
Demand for electricity in Belgium remains sluggish, while rising use of renewable energy sources and the fall in carbon allowances in the EU-ETS makes dispatch of coal-fired plants more profitable for operators than flexible gas-fired ones.
Consequently, the board of EDF Luminus informed Belgian authorities of a “possible permanent shutdown before 31 July [this year].” The actual closure is planned for 31 October 2017, and concerns the following plants:
- the combined-cycle power plant at Seraing, near Liège (485 MW),
- the 31-32 open-cycle power plant at Angleur, near Liège (50 MW)
- the combined-cycle power plant at Ghent (Ham) (52 MW),
- the open-cycle power plant of Izegem in West Flanders (22 MW)
The announcement to shut down over 600 MW of flexible gas power capacity threatens to further squeeze Belgium’s already tight margins and might put supply security at risk. Yet, EDF Luminus might just try to build pressure on Belgian policy makers to introduce a capacity market.
The utility stated that between now and October 2017, it will “monitor the ongoing talks about capacity remuneration mechanisms for the thermal power stations.” It underlined that the plants called in question employ forty people and represent an installed capacity of 609 MW on a total thermal capacity of 1,215 MW.
Even in the event of a “permanent closure”, EDF Luminus said it will examine “all possible options for redeployment” together with the trade unions.