COMPANY PROFILE
2015
Elia
www.elia.be | T: +32 2 546 70 11
© Elia System Operator
Power in progress Editorial: Roland Douglas
As Belgium’s high-voltage transmission system operator, Elia operates more than 8,000 km of lines and underground cables throughout the country, ensuring the transmission of electricity from generators to distribution systems, through to the consumer. Operating from a pivotal location in Europe, Elia is also a key player in the energy market and the interconnected electricity system. Created as a result of a legal unbundling in the
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electricity market, in June 2001 Elia became an independent limited liability company, and was appointed as the federal transmission system operator on 17 September 2002. Elia
today owns all of Belgium’s 150 to 380 kV grid infrastructure, alongside almost 94% of its 30 to 70 kV grid infrastructure, with an essential part too in the country’s economy, in
Elia supplying power directly to major companies connected to the grid. In addition to this vast presence in the Belgian market, Elia operates in Germany too through its subsidiary 50Hertz Transmission GmbH. The company has, over time, taken it upon itself to set up multiple initiatives aimed at promoting the development of an efficient, transparent and fair electricity market for the benefit of consumers. Its team of over 1,100 professionals in Belgium is committed not only to dealing with future challenges, but also to handling the dayto-day operation of a system considered to be one of the
most complex and reliable in Europe. It is a complex journey which electricity takes on its way from generators to consumers, passing through an open market involving numerous players. The electricity generators are the first parts of the chain, with the current created by these generators then injected into the transmission system. Power exchanges, which are platforms used by market players to anonymously negotiate sameday or next-day purchases and sales of electricity, are a means of providing an open market and establishing a transparent reference price for market participants. Then,
arguably of most importance, are the transmission system operators. Elia is Belgium’s only TSO, although with the electricity market also spanning across borders, and the interconnections between European transmission systems allowing countries to help each other and enabling cross-border energy exchanges, collaboration between TSOs is clearly crucial. Distribution system operators are then tasked with reliably and efficiently running medium to low-voltage distribution systems - transmitting electricity to residential customers, undertaking public lighting, among others – while regulators must effectively police an
Š Elia System Operator
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© Elia System Operator energy market in which many collectives have a legal monopoly. This can include guaranteeing transparency and competitiveness on the energy market, checking that the market operates in line with public interest and overall energy policy, and defending consumers’ interests. These consumers are the end users, and can be anyone from individuals to major industrial players. Industrial users are often directly connected to the high-voltage grid, whereas individual users are connected to the distribution system. Pivotal to the continued effective operation of the highvoltage grid is a constant state of evolution, where innovation is ceaselessly applied to meet the needs of consumers and the market. As a high-voltage system operator, Elia needs to
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“As a highvoltage system operator, Elia needs to permanently ensure that the grid is maintained and developed according to the needs of the market and the users”
permanently ensure that the grid is maintained and developed according to the needs of the market and the users. Accommodating a growing share of electricity generated by renewable energy sources and strengthening European interconnections are two of the major challenges which Elia is facing at present, and which it is tackling through an extensive series of development projects. The Brabo project, for example, which forms a large part of work to upgrade the Belgian electricity grid, is necessary to safeguard the energy supply to the whole of Belgium, and, in particular the Antwerp port area. A principal aim of this project is to increase import capacity from the Netherlands, with work already under way to install an additional phase-shifting
Elia transformer in Zandvliet on the border with the Netherlands, and to upgrade the existing 150-kV line between Zandvliet and Doel to a 380-kV line. A new 380-kV line will also be built between the high-voltage substations at Zandvliet and Lillo, then, from Liefkenshoek, the existing 150-kV connection will be modernised and upgraded to 380 kV. The 380-kV network is the central aspect of the highvoltage grid and links up with the European transmission system, with an historical junction in this grid situated near the ever-economically expanding region of the port of Antwerp. The last major grid investments in this region date back to the 1970s, however, which makes an upgrade of the grid essential to ensure the security of electricity
supply, and to enable the connection of new generation units to help cope with rising demand for electricity in this burgeoning area. Among Elia’s many grid development plans, arguably one of the most complex and noteworthy is the Stevin project, given the go-ahead in September this year in Bruges. The central aim of this project is to upgrade the electricity grid between Zomergem and Zeebrugge, and addresses several principal needs identified by Elia. Firstly, the expansion of the 380 kV grid will significantly improve the electricity supply for the West Flanders region, and enable further economic development in the important growth area around the port of Zeebrugge, while the connection
of additional decentralised electricity generation in the coastal region will also be possible. The nature of the overarching of the Stevin project entails a number of offshoots, themselves all significant standalone projects and key to achieving its goals. The group’s North Sea project gives way to enabling offshore wind power to be brought on land, and then transmitted to the domestic market. The intention here is to develop a meshed offshore grid to ensure that the wind farms in the North Sea are optimally integrated into its onshore grid. Its creation allows these wind farms to be connected to high-voltage substations that will be installed on Alpha and Beta platforms, which will, in turn, be connected
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to the onshore grid – as opposed to the current system, whereby all the different wind farms have individual connections to the onshore grid. This will give rise to a safer, more economical and more environmentallyfriendly offshore grid, and one which is just as reliable due to the grid’s structure. In a similar vein, the Horta 380 kV highvoltage substation is to be built near Zomergem, and will act as a junction between the 380 kV high-voltage AvelgemRodenhuize-Mercator line and the new 380 kV line leading to the coast in Zeebrugge. The substation will serve as a switching station between two existing high-voltage lines, and will make possible in the medium term the expansion of the 380 kV high-voltage network from this junction to the port of Zeebrugge.
“The Elia Life+ project proves that it is possible to achieve progressive transmission of electricity in line with biodiversity”
The Stevin development itself seeks primarily to render possible the implementation of the European and Belgian energy and climate policy, according to which Europe has the goals of cutting energy consumption by 20%, reducing CO2 emissions by 20% and generating 20% of total energy from sustainable, renewable sources by 2020. Belgium’s own target is to generate 13% of the energy it consumes from renewable sources by this deadline, and key to this is employing offshore wind power. Seven domain concessions have previously been awarded and installation of the first wind farms is under way, to be followed by the remainder as soon as Stevin is in place. Of course, this electricity then has to be brought onto land and transmitted via the grid to
© Elia System Operator
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Elia
© Elia System Operator distribution companies and customers. At present, the network on the coast has voltage levels of up to 150 kV, and limited capacity, saturated by the connection of the first three offshore wind farms. The expansive growth of decentralised generation like this means that the coastal network will have to be upgraded, and the strong 380 kV backbone between the coast and the inland parts of the country, which Stevin will provide, is therefore necessary, with further expansions of the 150 kV grid no longer sufficient. Work on the new 380-kV line will start in the spring of 2015 and is to be completed by the end of 2017, during which year
the laying of the existing 150-kV line underground will start in order that the existing 150-kV lines can be broken up in 2018-2019. The Elia Life+ project proves that it is possible to achieve such progressive transmission of electricity in line with biodiversity. A five-year European project conducted by Elia, the aim is to restore the land beneath power lines, transforming it into more stable natural environments which will be easier and less costly to maintain and far better for biodiversity. Alongside this goal,
Elia hopes to set an example for all other European transmission system operators and establish the first ecological network of its kind along the EU’s 300,000 km of power lines. This will spell the end to a maintenance policy for overhead lines which entails razing any vegetation within a corridor of roughly 50 metres beneath them – one which is both expensive for Elia and does not exactly encourage biodiversity – and instead identify various ways of managing these green corridors and highlight their financial benefit
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