Public Consultation for the Task Force LRIO

Context

The usage of electricity will rise significantly during the coming decades, due to the addition of more renewable energy sources, the electrification of sectors such as transport and industry, or the addition of new categories of consumers, such as data centers, electrolysers or carbon capture. As anticipating the location of these additional usages is important to know where the grid needs to be reinforced, Elia wishes to involve the relevant stakeholders in the processes of distributing theses new usages.

National or regional development studies are indeed based on scenarios that describe future additional usages at aggregated level (national or regional), but do not consider where these future additional usages will be located within the territory. This repartition step is important to know where the network needs to be reinforced or developed.

Object of the Public Consultation

In preparation of the consultation, four workshops were held through the Task Force LRIO, consisting of the members of Elia’s Belgian Grid Working Group , that gathers a large variety of stakeholders (consumers, producers, organizations, academics, federations, DSOs…). The following workshops have been organised since May 15th,  in which the following topics were discussed: 

1.Kickoff (May 15th): explained what Local Redistribution is and how it fits into the various grid development processes, and grid connection studies. A special attention was given on how Elia handles the uncertainty on the apparition of the future usages, and how connection requests impact redistribution.

2.Generation & Storage (June 24th): redistribution methodologies for the main technologies (wind onshore & offshore, photovoltaics, conventional units, pumped hydro storage and batteries).

3.Load (September 4th): evolution of the existing and known loads, redistribution methodologies for (road) electric vehicles and heat pumps (used for space and water heating).

4.Interconnectors & Open Questions (October 14th): integration of interconnectors in the Reference Context (for reference only, not part of the public consultation), and open questions from stakeholders.

During these sessions, Local Redistribution, its usage within Grid Development processes and redistribution methodologies were presented to stakeholders and discussed collaboratively. The slide decks and minutes from these workshops are available on the website, or directly through the links provided above. Please note that some values may have been updated since the publication of those materials. Accordingly, the slides and minutes are for reference only and do not constitute official content submitted for consultation. 

Period

Elia invites all stakeholders to submit any comments and suggestions they may have on the document submitted for consultation.

The consultation period runs from Friday, October 3rd, to Monday, November 17th, 2025 6:00 PM.

After the consultation period, Elia will collect all comments and feedback from the market parties. The comments will be analysed and integrated into a consultation report together with responses. In addition to the consultation report, Elia reserves the right to publish the reactions of the market parties (including names) on the website, unless it is explicitly stated that the contribution is to be considered confidential.

Responding to the consultation

Stakeholders are invited to submit their comments and suggestions from the launch of the consultation using the form below. These must be received no later than Monday November 17th, 2025, at 6:00 PM.

Please indicate if any part of your submission should be treated as confidential.

For any questions, please contact the following address: usersgroup@elia.be