For the first time since 2014, the Belgian government will not set up a strategic reserve programme for the next winter. The Ministry of Energy estimates that the current production rate will be sufficient to cover domestic needs even though the domestic transmission system operator (TSO) Elia launched a procedure for the establishment of a 500 MW reserve for winter 2018 as early as February 2018. According to the government's estimate, the delayed restart of the nuclear power units Doel-1 and Doel-2 is expected to have a minor role and will not threaten domestic supply.
Belgium is also on its way to replace the strategic reserve programme with a new capacity market system. A capacity remuneration mechanism (CRM) has been approved in July 2018 and a two-tier auction system should be implemented by 2021 before the nuclear phase out of 2025. This scheme will enable the government to subsidise capacity in a bid to guarantee security of supply.
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