Federal Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen) on Thursday kicked off an information campaign entitled “Be energy smart and help Ukraine”.
Objective: to give a series of practical advice on how to consume energy intelligently and thus indirectly help Ukraine. The campaign is supported by a thirty-second radio spot on all major national radio channels and on the jaiunimpact.be website. Many Belgians have already lowered their heating thermostat or left the car at home.
The campaign, which includes recommendations and not binding measures, aligns a series of simple tips that together have, according to the minister, a big impact: put the heating on night mode an hour earlier, raise the temperature of the freezer a little, turn off energy-intensive appliances in the house, take public transport and/or the bike,… Everyone has an impact by reducing their consumption of gas and oil, assuming that eleven million small steps make a very big difference.
The campaign, which will be carried out until mid-May, also indicates the way forward to prepare for next winter: insulating your home saves up to 30% energy. The State intends to set a good example: the Secretary of State in charge of the Régie des Bâtiments, Mathieu Michel (MR) has asked to reduce the heating temperature of public buildings depending on it by one degree. .
1.2 billion euros released
More broadly, the government has decided in recent weeks and months to release 1.2 billion euros to accelerate the production of wind energy at sea and on land. It reduced VAT to 6% for the installation of solar panels, heat pumps and solar water heaters and extended the VAT reduction to 6% for demolition-reconstruction. In the context of the conflict in Ukraine, Austria, Germany and Italy have activated an emergency plan at their level linked to the problem of gas supplies from Russia on which these countries are much more dependent. Tinne Van der Straeten repeated that Belgium was not faced with this situation at the moment. Although it imports 30% oil and 20% uranium from Russia, it only depends on this country for 6% of its natural gas needs.
Far from the situation of the three countries mentioned above, it is nevertheless ready, if necessary, to also activate the emergency plan developed at European level.
This is scheduled in three phases depending on the degree of urgency of the situation. The first, called “Early warning”, consists of a pre-alert and essentially monitoring the situation. The “alert” phase foresees the use of operational gas reserves; the purchase of gas by the network operator Fluxys and to make greater use of LNG terminals and storage facilities. The “emergency” phase plans to call on gas users to reduce their consumption. It is also a question of disconnecting customers according to established criteria. The Energy Minister insisted that there was no supply problem in Belgium. “Nobody can predict how the conflict will develop, but we can prepare now. Because by saving energy together, we help Ukraine and we can quickly reduce our dependence on energy from Russia.”