The Belgian Commission for Electricity and Gas Regulation (Commission belge de l’électricité et du gaz or CREG) published its 2016 monitoring report regarding the electricity market trends in Belgium. For the third year in a row, electricity consumption in the Elia control area amounted approximately 77 TWh (of which 3 TWh from solar energy), a level similar to the power grid loads observed in 2014 and 2015.
The installed capacity connected to the Elia grid amounted 14 GW in 2016, a figure which represents a small decrease compared to 2015. Nuclear reactors and gas-fired power plants accounted for more than 70% of the Belgian installed capacity. In 2016, the last coal-fired unit was shut down. The power generation of units connected to Elia's grid reached almost 69.7 TWh in 2016, compared to 55.7 TWh in 2015. This increase is mainly due to a better availability of nuclear plants and led to a decrease in imports.
Yearly averaged day-ahead wholesale electricity prices have reached their lowest level since the Belgian power market liberalisation and amounted €36.6/MWh in average. According to the CREG, they have been decreasing by 25.7% since 2007 (about €10/MWh).
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