Swiss electricity supply outlook positive despite uncertainties

The Swiss Federal Electricity Commission (ELCOM) said that measures such as maintaining a winter reserve remained necessary. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Thanks to well-filled gas stores in Europe and increased availability of French nuclear power, the Swiss Federal Electricity Commission (ELCOM) is optimistic about the coming winter.  

However, uncertainties remain around the global gas market, as well as imports, so ELCOM cannot fully guarantee the security of Switzerland’s electricity supply, it announced on Tuesday.

The regulatory authority added that measures such as maintaining a winter reserve remained necessary and that reserve capacities of 700 to 1,400 megawatts were also advisable with a view to medium-term security of supply until 2035.  

In principle, however, the starting position for domestic electricity supply for the coming winter is better than the last two years, the report continued. Last winter, a secure supply was guaranteed due to mild temperatures and high electricity production both in Switzerland and abroad. According to ELCOM, Switzerland was even a net exporter due to its high hydro and nuclear power production. 

Adapted from German by DeepL/kp 

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].