Energy island costs off Belgian coast skyrocket, major customers want project halted

The high-voltage grid operator provides investments in new high-voltage networks, such as the new Ventilus high-voltage line and the energy island, to companies and households. These end up on our electricity bill under the “transmission/transport” item.

This item will increase in the coming years, as our power watchdog CREG announced last year. That increase had already been registered and approved by the CREG. The first increase will be from January 1. For large companies such as Nyrstar, BASF, Ineos, Infrabel, this means millions of euro extra every year. For a typical home, this comes every year now equal to 82 Euro.

But if investment costs for Elia rise, it is likely that households and companies will have to pay even more. So the CREG looks at the file with suspicion. The question remains as to how far the costs can be reduced, as the island is already being built and tenders for the electrical plants are ongoing. Febeliec, the federation of major industrial power users, is now calling for the cancellation of these offers. These were expected to end at the end of this year. But first it must become clearer what the costs will be, says Febeliec.

But it looks like that won’t even be 3.6 billion anymore. Because neither the minister nor Elia denies that there will be a new cost increase.