Its Belgian subsidiary Electrabel announced the same day a rescheduling of outages at its Tihange 2 and Tihange 3 nuclear units. The former is not expected back online until June 1 2019 (its restart was previously planned on October 31 this year) while Tihange 3 is not expected to restart until March 2 2019 (previously September 30 2018).

Each of the two units has about 1 GW power generation capacity.

As a result, Engie says the availability factor of its Belgian nuclear plants is expected at 52% for 2018; for 2019 the availability factor is expected at 74%. Engie's nuclear capacity is all based in Belgium. Although 2018 is strongly impacted by unplanned nuclear outages, Engie nonetheless confirms its 2018 target for net recurring income (group), but at the low end of its €2.45bn to €2.65bn range.

Belgian nuclear regulator AFCN issued a statement on September 19 noting that Electrabel had alerted it to degradation of the concrete housing in some non-nuclear buildings at plants. At Tihange 2, this had already been identified in previous inspections and the unit was already offline. AFCN said that remedial work would not impact staff, nearby people or the environment.

The Belgian government is reviewing energy policy, particularly with regard to nuclear power. Engie says that based on current decisions, all of its seven Belgian reactors will have been shut down by 2025. Its equity interest in Tihange 2 and 3 is 89.81% and they have been scheduled for definitive closure on June 1 2023 and September 1 2025.