Switzerland is saying goodbye to fossil fuels: e-cars are replacing gasoline-powered vehicles, heat pumps are replacing oil heating systems. However, this also increases power consumption – while the nuclear power plants are also gradually being taken off the grid.
In addition, the expansion of renewables is stalling. So far, wind and solar energy have only covered six percent of consumption. In future, Switzerland will therefore have to import significantly more electricity in winter than it does today.
But the inflow from Europe threatens to dry up. Because the Federal Council broke off negotiations on the framework agreement, the EU does not want to conclude an electricity agreement with Switzerland. And by 2025 at the latest, our neighbors will reserve at least 70 percent of their cross-border capacities for electricity trading within the EU.
That is why Switzerland has to massively expand domestic production – with green energy in order to achieve the climate targets.
The local electricity suppliers from Axpo to Alpiq are investing heavily in renewables – they just prefer to do so across the border. In the past five years, the annual production of their foreign power plants has increased by 70 percent to 11.5 terawatt hours (TWh). That corresponds to one sixth of the annual consumption in Switzerland.
In the event of a dispute with Brussels, however, this juice is worthless. “It belongs to the electricity capacity of the EU or the respective country,” says the department of Simonetta Sommaruga. “The Swiss companies have no right or privilege to import the electricity into Switzerland.”
That is why the energy minister recently attacked the electricity companies head-on and made them responsible for the impending energy crisis. The reaction came immediately: The responsibility for the security of supply in the country does not lie with the company, said Axpo CEO Christoph Brand at the end of October in “Switzerland on the weekend”. If the state is heading towards a supply bottleneck, the federal government must take measures – not Axpo or BKW, for example.
Confederation: The operators are responsible
The dispute escalated – and Sommaruga vehemently contradicts the electricity boss. “The energy supply in Switzerland is primarily a matter for the energy industry,” notes her Uvek department on request. This is exactly what it says in Article 6 of the Energy Act.
Nevertheless, the Axpo boss counters in an interview with SonntagsBlick: “Since the partial market liberalization in 2009, Switzerland has had a system of partial responsibilities. In this context, Axpo has no supply mandate. “
Switzerland is heading for a blackout – and nobody wants to take responsibility. For Aeneas Wanner, Managing Director of “Energy Future Switzerland”, this does not come as a surprise: “The responsibilities are divided between the Federal Council and Parliament via the Electricity Commission ElCom and the network operators, producers and suppliers.” They all have to pull together, says Wanner. “Especially now, because access to the EU network is made more difficult in a crisis.”
The day before yesterday, Friday, the crisis was palpable. On this day, over 300 industry representatives met at the ElCom Forum in Lucerne to discuss security of supply – but also the question of responsibility. “We have a major construction site here,” said Elcom President Werner Luginbühl. “Elcom is asking the Federal Council to take measures now.” But companies also have an obligation: “You are investing too much abroad.”
Axpo boss Brand does not want to let this accusation sit on him: “Since 2013 we have invested almost three times as much in Germany as abroad, especially in hydropower, nuclear power and grids.”
But why does it look different with wind and solar energy? “Abroad, larger plants with climate-neutral production can be realized much faster and more economically,” says Brand. «In Switzerland we can practically not implement any new projects because everyone is blocked by objections. And at the same time they would not be economical. “
National Councilor Roger Nordmann also sees it that way. “Investments are urgent and can hardly be financed on the market,” said the SP energy politician at the ElCom forum in Lucerne. “The state must let more money flow to finance new plants.”
But that alone is not enough, he adds in an interview with SonntagsBlick: “The approval process takes far too long without nature being better protected.” Many hydropower, biomass and wind projects would be cut off from objections. “That is why the legislature must massively simplify the approval process. Then the energy suppliers will also invest in green electricity domestically. “
Operator: The federal government is responsible
Rudolf Rechsteiner, member of the board of directors of the Basel-based energy supplier IWB and author of the book “The energy transition in the waiting room”, also criticizes the federal government: “The incentives for domestic investments are insufficient. The electricity companies have to operate their plants economically. But that is not possible under the current conditions in Switzerland. ” Changing this is the task of the federal government: “If there is an emerging power shortage, it is responsible for countermeasures, not the energy supplier.”
Which puts the ball back in the field of politics, because the Energy Act also says: “The Confederation and the cantons provide the framework conditions that are necessary so that the energy industry can fulfill this task in the overall interest.”
The crux of the matter here is that companies only do this if they are making big profits with it. “A company that does not generate any return cannot survive in the long term,” argues Christoph Brand.
Because it is also a fact: Swiss electricity suppliers have long since become profit hunters whose managers are paid millions – although they are not backed by any major private investors, but in the vast majority of cases by municipalities and cantons.
And they put pressure on. Christoph Brand: “According to the Swiss Code of Obligations, we are obliged to conduct business loyally, so we cannot simply risk losses through uneconomical investments to the detriment of the cantons and their people.” As the owners of the companies, they could very well push for more domestic investment. When in doubt, however, like private investors, they would rather opt for dividends – and against long-term security of supply.
The framework conditions in Switzerland already allow profitable investments, says the Uvek. And announces a new template to speed up the process of building new facilities.
Is that enough to avert a blackout? Time is running out.