Hasselt (Brussels Morning Newspaper) -The street lighting in six locations, including Hasselt, Herk-de-Stad, Bocholt, Diest, Houthalen, and Laakdal, experienced issues during the previous night. The power grid operator, Fluvius, continues to search for the exact reason behind the blackout. “We assume that we will find it before tonight”, says spokesperson Eef De Vos.
The street lighting systems failed across Hasselt, Herk-de-Stad, Bocholt, Diest, Houthalen and Laakdal during the previous night, resulting in multiple areas throughout these municipalities losing power. Fluvius grid operator explained the power outage was not responsible for the disruption because homes still received electricity yet failed to identify the root cause, as reported by VRT.
The spokesperson, Eef De Vos, said that the central control system responsible for managing classic street lights might have failed because LED lights operated normally. The staff at Fluvius aims to resolve the outage before nighttime begins.
Not only was Hasselt affected, but in 5 other municipalities, the lighting also worked only partially.
“The problem was quite extensive”,
says Eef De Vos of Fluvius.
“It was in Bocholt, Hasselt, Herk-de-Stad, Diest, Houthalen and Laakdal.”
According to Fluvius, the problem lies with the classic lighting; the LED lighting did turn on normally, according to information from the grid operator.
“We are converting to LED lighting everywhere and are now at about 60 % LED lighting in Flemish cities and municipalities. Because it did remain on, the problem was not equally visible everywhere,”
says De Vos.
In Bocholt, unlike in Hasselt, no reports were received about the street lighting at the board.
“I didn’t notice anything myself and we didn’t receive any comments from residents. We do indeed work largely with LED lighting, so no one will have noticed,”
says Mayor Stijn Van Baelen (Via).
Fluvius is still looking for the exact cause of the problem. Whether it will be solved before tonight is not yet entirely clear.
“We do assume that we will find the cause before the coming night.”
“To switch on the classic street lighting, we work with a central signal that sends a command to the lighting in the cities and municipalities via the transformer stations. That system has probably failed somewhere.”
“It is certainly not a Spanish situation,”
says De Vos.
“That is because the street lighting is controlled with different cables than the rest of the power, such as in houses and other buildings. This problem only occurs with the street lighting. Moreover, it was probably a control error, in other words, there was power, but it was not activated.”
Have street lighting failures occurred in Hasselt before?
Street lighting disruptions in Hasselt have become occasional in recent years, but these incidents have remained localised and received quick solutions. The central control system suffered a technical failure in 2019, which left portions of the downtown area unilluminated for several hours until Fluvius decided to replace outdated infrastructure.
The Kuringen district’s streetlights went out in 2021 when an underground cable received damage and needed two days to be fixed. The current widespread power outage differs from previous failures since previous disruptions only affected isolated neighbourhoods.
The implementation of LED lighting in Hasselt has decreased control signal failures because modern lighting systems experience fewer such issues. Some areas experience delays in restoration because certain zones persist with older technological systems.
Fluvius shows that the town of Hasselt experiences only one minor street lighting malfunction in a year, which is resolved in 24 hours or less. Multi-municipality power outages remain extraordinary events compared to previous incidents, which generally affected only one city’s facilities. According to authorities, these occurrences are technological in nature and exhibit no recurring systematic errors.
