Following a power cut that affected the Brussels communes of Etterbeek, Evere, and Schaerbeek, hundreds of homes have been left without power and French-language TV and radio stations owned by broadcaster RTBF have gone offline.
The power cut, which occurred at 12:16 on Wednesday, April 6, particularly affected Boulevard Auguste Reyers, Avenue Eugène Plasky, Avenue Rogier, Place Meiser, and Boulevard Léopold II, according to energy operator Sibelga.
According to a spokesperson for Sibelga, a large electricity substation has suffered a “technical problem”, the cause of which is as of yet unknown.
[Update] elektriciteitspanne in Schaerbeek, Evere. 61% van de klanten hebben ondertussen weer stroom. Volledige herstelling vermoedelijk voorzien om 17:30 https://t.co/SBjtD6bYxU. Bedankt voor uw geduld.
— Sibelga (@sibelga) April 6, 2022
Tweet translation: [Update] "Power outage in Schaerbeek, Evere. In the meantime, 61% of the customers have electricity again. Full repair is expected at 17:30 https://sibel.ga/3DLsc1Z. Thank you for your patience."
In RTBF’s broadcast centre in Reyers, Brussels fire engines are attempting to rescue employees trapped inside the elevators of the building.
As of the time of writing, 61% of customers have been reconnected to power. Sibelga now predicts that power will be fully restored at 17:30. Around half of the high voltage, cables have been repaired so far.
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TV stations La Une, Tipik, and La Trois; and radio stations La Première, Vivacité, and Auvio live stations are offline at the time of writing.
According to RTBF, emergency generators were used to attempt to display the 13:00 news, but unfortunately, they cut out during the broadcast. All planned afternoon broadcasts on French-speaking radio and TV stations are unable to be transmitted.
RTBF had originally hoped that the signal would be restored at 15:00, but this did not happen. Both RTBF and Sibelga have apologised for the inconvenience caused to their customers.
