In Germany, a chemical company is laying off 680 employees. She closes the doors and moves to another location due to ... an electricity shortage (!).
These types of reports have been commonplace in Germany since the closure of all nuclear power stations and the switch to coal and lignite. One company after another closes due to either the high cost of electricity or an electricity shortage.
What about Belgium?
There is currently no electricity shortage, but there may be a shortage! The following can be read on the updated website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs:
Why there may be a shortage of electricity in Belgium. To understand why a power shortage is still possible today, we must keep an important principle in mind: it is currently technically impossible to store electricity on a large scale. Electricity must therefore be produced at the time it is consumed.
For the electricity grid to function normally, electricity production and consumption must therefore be constantly balanced.
In normal times there is little risk of electricity running out to meet consumption needs.
The government, market participants and grid operators have taken measures at various levels to guarantee the security of electricity supply in our country. However, there will always remain a certain risk.
In exceptional circumstances, and more specifically during winter, tensions could arise on the Belgian and international electricity markets due to a combination of factors (unexpected unavailability of the production park + high consumption due to low temperatures + low level of sustainable production ).
This is possible:
- cause price increases
- increasing our need for electricity from abroad
- even lead to a risk of a shortage of electricity on certain days to cover peak consumption.
You can follow the situation in our country for the next seven days via this website.
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