10,000 Families Lose Power in Flemish Ardennes Outage
Approximately 10,000 households across the Flemish Ardennes region of East Flanders, Belgium, were left without electricity on Saturday morning after a failure at the Elia high-voltage substation in Oudenaarde caused 464 power cabins to stop working. The outage, which began on Saturday morning, affected parts of Oudenaarde, Kruisem, Maarkedal, Horebeke, and Zwalm, according to VRT NWS.
Widespread Disruption
“Because Elia’s high-voltage substation in Oudenaarde failed, 464 cabins are no longer working,” said David Callens, spokesperson for Fluvius, the Flemish distribution network operator. “As a result, a large area of the Flemish Ardennes is currently without power.”
The outage has disrupted daily life across the affected municipalities, with some residents also losing water service. Households in remote locations that rely on electric water pumps were particularly affected, as the pumps ceased to function without electricity.
Fluvius crews began working to reroute electricity through alternative paths to restore service. “We are trying to reroute so that residents get power through another route, but that can take a while,” Callens said, noting that no exact restoration timeline could be provided.
The cause of the Elia substation failure has not yet been determined. Local news outlet NUUS confirmed the widespread impact across the region, reporting that numerous homes in Zwalm, Kruisem, Horebeke, and Oudenaarde were affected.
A Recurring Problem
This marks the second major power outage to hit the same region in just 11 days. On August 11, a similar outage affected approximately 10,000 families in the same municipalities when a transformer failure at Elia’s infrastructure caused 460 electricity cabins to fail.
That earlier outage, which began in the evening, was resolved by midnight. “The problem is solved and together with Fluvius we will now restart all power flows bit by bit,” said Carolien Pouleyn, spokesperson for Elia, at the time, as reported by VRT NWS.
The recurrence of similar-scale outages originating from Elia’s high-voltage infrastructure in the Oudenaarde area raises questions about the reliability and resilience of the region’s power grid. Both incidents involved failures at the transmission level cascading down to affect hundreds of distribution cabins operated by Fluvius.
Understanding the Grid
Belgium’s electricity system relies on a two-tier network structure. Elia, the high-voltage transmission system operator, manages the national grid that carries electricity over long distances. Fluvius, the Flemish distribution network operator, manages the medium- and low-voltage network that delivers power to homes and businesses.
When a failure occurs at the high-voltage level, it can cascade through transformer substations and knock out hundreds of distribution cabins downstream. This is precisely what happened in both the August 11 and August 22 incidents, affecting the same municipalities each time.
The Flemish Ardennes region, characterized by rolling hills and rural settlements, presents particular challenges for power restoration. Many homes are in remote areas, and some depend on electric water pumps for their water supply, making power outages more disruptive than in urban settings.
Compensation and Recovery
Under Flemish regulations, residents are entitled to fixed compensation if an unplanned power outage lasts more than four hours. The compensation is paid by the network operator, which in this case would be Fluvius.
As of Saturday afternoon, reports indicated that power was being gradually restored to affected households. The outage was ultimately resolved, with electricity being progressively returned to the 10,000 affected families.
What to Watch For
The repeated failures at Elia’s Oudenaarde substation within such a short timeframe point to potential systemic vulnerabilities in the region’s power infrastructure. Questions remain about the root cause of the August 22 failure and what measures will be taken to prevent a third occurrence.
Residents and local authorities will be closely watching for answers from Elia regarding the cause of the failure and the steps being taken to reinforce the substation’s reliability. For the 10,000 families affected, the immediate concern is full restoration of service and assurance that this pattern of outages does not continue.