Being available for the system

With a view to guaranteeing secure grid operations, Elia, among other things, ensures coordination of technical units (i.e. generation, demand and storage facilities) based on information on unit unavailability provided by Outage Planning Agents (OPAs).

To prepare and oversee a secure operation of the grid, Elia uses information concerning forecasted and scheduled unavailability of technical units. One information set in particular deals with planned and forced unavailability. Having this information to hand at technical unit level allows Elia to:

• Efficiently plan maintenance of the grid itself;
• Conduct analyses and take any necessary measures to ensure sufficient availability of flexibility offered for the various system services;
• Support system adequacy.

Elia currently primarily coordinates the outage planning of generation and storage units with an installed capacity of at least 25 MW that are connected to the Elia grid. Other generation units may also be included in a contract in order to assist with the coordination process carried out by Elia (units liable to seriously affect the Elia grid) or offer specific system services (if the signing of a contract for the Outage Planning Agent is a prerequisite for provision of the service).