Engie earned almost one and a half billion euros from Belgian nuclear power stations in 2024

It is about the profit for interest and taxes (EBIT) from the nuclear activities. About a billion of it comes from the Belgian nuclear reactors, the rest of so -called drawing rights at nuclear power stations in France.

The operational profit was much higher last year than in 2023, when it was 605 million euros. This is mainly because the inframarginal tax has disappeared. That is the over -precision tax that the Belgian government lifted during the energy crisis. That extra levy disappeared in June 2023. “That positive effect was heavier than the impact of the closure of the Tihange 2 reactor in February 2023 and the lower availability of the nuclear reactors (86.2 percent, compared to 88.8 percent in 2023),” says Engie in a press release. The lower availability was mainly because Reactor Doel 4 last year for a few months, after damage had been established during maintenance of the concrete reinforcement in the outer shell of the Reactorbouw.

Engie still has four rotating nuclear reactors in Belgium. In 2022 the Reactor Doel 3 was stopped and in 2023 Tihange 2. Two weeks ago, goal 1, the oldest nuclear reactor in the country, was definitively stopped after fifty years. Tihange 1 and Doel 2 of the electricity grid will also be disconnected later this year.

The operating period of the last two reactors, Doel 4 and Tihange 3, was extended by ten years, until 2035. That lifetime extension was recently approved by the European Commission. Engie expects that the final steps in the procedure with the federal government will be completed by March 14 at the latest.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s government wants to extend the lifespan of the two reactors for a minimum of ten years, she says in the coalition agreement. Engie, for his part, repeatedly did not be a questioning party for an additional extension. Nuclear energy is also not part of the further ambitions of Engie.

The entire group of ENGIE achieved a net profit of 4.1 billion euros last year, almost doubling compared to 2023. That is also largely due to the Belgian nuclear reactors. “It is mainly the result of reversing the negative effect of the revision of the nuclear commissions as a result of the agreement signed with the Belgian State in 2023,” says Engie. Without the nuclear activities there was a drop in profit. The group turnover fell by more than 10 percent to 73.8 billion euros.

Investors responded enthusiastically to an increase in the profit forecast for 2025 and sent the ENGIE share more than 6 percent higher on Thursday morning.