Fluvius to Map Flanders’ Phased Gas Grid Closure

The Flemish government has tasked grid operator Fluvius with preparing the phased shutdown of the region’s natural gas network, setting in motion a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood retreat from fossil fuel heating as Flanders pursues climate neutrality by 2050. According to VRT NWS, the assignment stems from a draft decree approved by the Flemish government over the summer, requiring Fluvius to draw up concrete plans for where and when parts of the gas grid can be decommissioned.

Roughly two in three Flemish households — about 65 percent — currently heat their homes with natural gas, and Fluvius still counts some 2.4 million gas connections for households and small businesses. The new plans mark the first structured effort to reverse that, rather than merely limiting new connections.

From Connection Ban to Decommissioning

The direction of travel was already set. A general ban on gas connections for new-build homes and non-residential buildings has applied in Flanders since 1 January 2025, following earlier restrictions on large subdivisions, apartment buildings and group housing projects from 1 January 2021, as Fluvius explains on its official blog.

What was missing was a plan for the existing grid. Under the draft decree, Fluvius must produce decommissioning plans every four years, each with a ten-year outlook and a concrete list of locations where the gas network can be shut down. Initial priorities will be neighbourhoods where district heating networks already exist or where most customers have already switched to heat pumps.

“We have therefore asked Flanders for a clear policy and a long-term vision, to be able to make the necessary investments, organise the transition well and keep the impact on customers as small as possible,” said Fluvius spokesperson Lara Lammens.

The Last Households Could Be Forced Off Gas

The most sensitive element of the plan is the possibility that the final households on a street or in a neighbourhood still using gas could be legally compelled to disconnect. Fluvius confirms the option exists but says it is looking to the Flemish government for guidance.

“That is one of the questions on the table today,” Lammens said. “The earlier we know the policy and can map out the trajectory, the more manageable the costs remain.”

She stressed that no immediate action is imminent. “The gas grid continues to function perfectly today. The many households connected to it today will be able to continue to count on safe and reliable service in the coming years.”

Flemish Minister of Housing and Energy Melissa Depraetere (Vooruit) framed the shift as both an economic and a social imperative. “More and more households and businesses today are choosing electricity instead of natural gas. That is a good thing. It makes us less dependent on expensive fossil gas from abroad,” she said.

She added that the government is “investing heavily in stronger electricity grids, heat pumps and district heating networks” to avoid unnecessary spending on infrastructure with falling demand. “But such a change must happen socially. That is why we are carefully preparing the next steps and ensuring alternatives, so that everyone can participate.”

The Cost Trap for Remaining Users

The economic logic driving the phase-out is also its central political vulnerability. As gas use falls faster than the number of connections, the cost of maintaining a largely intact network is spread across fewer and fewer users — pushing grid tariffs upward.

Flanders’ utility regulator, the Vlaamse Nutsregulator, examined this dynamic in a 2025 study on the future of natural gas networks. It found that under all three modelled scenarios, network tariffs rise because the number of users declines faster than the network’s costs. The study warned that without steering, the result is rising bills, affordability risks and social inequality.

A briefing note summarising a hearing on that study, published by the Flemish Environment and Nature Council (Minaraad) and archived by EMIS/VITO, put the tension starkly: a capital-intensive gas distribution network designed for long-term use is colliding with a climate policy built on phasing out fossil fuels. The note concluded that only a strongly organised, area-based phase-out tied to heat planning can bring costs under control — and that without timely, explicit policy choices, regulators, grid operators and local authorities cannot do their jobs effectively.

Who Pays — and How Fast?

The unanswered question is who bears the cost of transition, particularly for vulnerable households, older homes that are technically difficult and expensive to retrofit, and owners who cannot afford a new heating system. A heat pump is not an appliance that can simply be plugged in: some homes need insulation work first, and others need their entire heating installation replaced.

The critical press has seized on that gap. P-magazine described a “political paradox”: consumers are first encouraged to leave gas, then the network becomes so lightly used that maintaining it for the holdouts is economically unsustainable, and finally the network’s disappearance becomes the justification for removing the last users. “Who pays when the climate ambition arrives at the Fleming’s front door?” it asked.

Several fiscal levers already nudge users away from gas. Since 1 July 2025, replacing a gas boiler carries 21 percent VAT instead of 6 percent, while VAT on heat pumps for renovations remains at 6 percent. From 2027, the EU’s new Emissions Trading System for buildings and transport (ETS2) is expected to make gas more expensive, and a federal plan would shift excise duties from electricity toward gas between 2028 and 2032.

No Fixed Date Yet

Despite the momentum, there is still no single date by which all Flemish homes must be off gas. The concrete timetable depends on upcoming government decisions and regulatory approvals: the Flemish government must still decide when Fluvius’s first decommissioning plans are due, which areas get priority, and under what conditions a connection may actually be cut.

The Vlaamse Nutsregulator must approve Fluvius’s exit plans before customers at affected locations can be disconnected. Advice and further parliamentary debate are expected before the draft decree becomes law.

Fluvius, for its part, was only required to connect anyone who wanted gas until 2017, and its smart gas meter rollout — completing around 2027 — is a major investment whose accounting balance flips from depreciation around that time.

What to Watch

The phase-out will not happen overnight, and no household will wake up to a dead boiler tomorrow. But the framework now under construction determines something more consequential than any single neighbourhood: which heating choices will remain available to Flemish homeowners in the decades ahead. With 2.4 million connections still in place and a 2050 climate deadline, the political battle over pace, fairness and cost has only just begun.