French energy group Engie has brought forward the date of the overhaul operations for its Tihange-1 nuclear reactor in Belgium by one week to save time and avoid a possible blackout in November in case of challenging meteorological conditions. Tihange-1 maintenance operations will take place between 13 October and 17 November 2018 instead of the initial planned dates of 20 October-29 November. November 2018 will be very tense month in terms of electricity supply for Belgium and this slight calendar change is meant to help in case of cold wave.
Indeed, the country is expected to face an unprecedented power supply crunch this winter after Engie decided to delay the restart of its 443 MWe Doel-1 and Doel-2 nuclear reactors (Belgium) by two months in September 2018. They were slated to restart in October 2018, following long maintenance stops, which began in April-May 2018 but the company decided to extend the maintenance outage. Besides, Engie also decided to postpone the restart of its Tihange-2 and 3 nuclear reactors in September 2018 by several months following the discovery of problems with their concrete structures.
Engie operates seven nuclear reactors in Belgium, of which four in Doel (2,905 MW) and three in Tihange (3,008 MW).