Together with you, we can help to ensure Switzerland’s security of supply in winter by preventing energy waste. This will also protect your wallet. Here, we’ll provide you with answers to key questions and show you how electricity consumption is changing in the city of Zurich, Bregaglia and central Grisons.
The Swiss Federal Office of Energy’s energy dashboard provides information about the current energy situation in Switzerland.
- As an energy provider, ewz fulfils a supply mandate: we ensure a reliable electricity supply in the city of Zurich and parts of the Grisons, as well as to our qualifying customers throughout Switzerland. We produce and procure the corresponding quantity of electricity that our clients need in a timely manner.
- ewz is ready: We produce electricity in our own power plants and we manage our reservoirs with the goal of maintaining capacity and thus flexibility for the colder seasons.
- It’s important to view security of supply at the national and international level and not just in local isolation (city of Zurich and the Grisons). Every energy provider has the same function, with those with little or none of their own production facilities sometimes still having to buy electricity at high prices on the power market. If every energy supplier remains cautious under the current conditions, this will benefit the security of supply and grid reliability throughout the whole of Switzerland.
- Over the entire year, we – and Switzerland as a whole – produce more electricity than we actually need. In summer, our electricity surplus is sold on the European market. In the colder seasons, we procure additional electricity from elsewhere in Europe.
- The situation (as of autumn 2023) is nowhere near as dramatic as it was a year ago. Even so, the SFOE’s energy dashboard still classifies the supply situation as ‘strained’.
- In order to prevent a winter power shortage, the Federal Council agreed a number of measures which have now been implemented. These include a hydropower reserve, the construction of a reserve power plant in Birr (AG), the provision of additional reserve power plants and emergency power groups or the increasing of capacity in the transmission grid.
- Should the situation change, the Federal Council will be able to take appropriate measures by ordinance and activate the Organisation for Power Supply in Extraordinary Situations (OSTRAL), which will be instructed to carry out the following measures in a phased manner:
- Bans and consumption restrictions
- Rationing for bulk consumers
- and, something to be avoided at all costs and only applied as a last resort – rolling outages
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- If there are supply shortages in Switzerland or even the whole of Europe, this will impact Zurich, even if ewz itself is still producing enough electricity. In simple terms: when the lights go out in Europe, they go out in Switzerland and Zurich as well.
The best kilowatt hour is the one that isn’t needed and doesn’t have to be produced in the first place. Everyone can use energy efficiently. Some things you can do:
- Turn lights off when you leave the room
- Don’t leave devices on stand-by
- Use LED lights
- Use a saucepan lid when you cook
Here are plenty more tips and tricks for saving electricity – and money!
In a city with over 430,000 residents, and a country with a population of 9 million, we can save a huge amount of electricity with no loss of comfort at all. You can find more tips in our online magazine, powernewz.ch:
ewz in-home energy audits have been helping private individuals with free tips and tricks on efficient use of energy for over thirty years – by telephone or even virtually. You won’t just be saving electricity, but cash as well! The same goes for businesses, who can take advantage of our free initial audit.
- No, not for private households in the basic supply system! That's because ewz produces electricity at its own power plants and partner plants, calculates the electricity at generation cost price and is not subject to market fluctuations.
- The overall electricity tariff is broken down into four components: energy supply (electricity), grid usage, municipal levies and national grid surcharge. Because ewz has enough of its own hydropower plants, wind power plants and photovoltaic systems to produce the electricity it needs, under the basic supply system customers receive power from us at stable production costs. Current fluctuations in the power market have no impact on ewz's price calculations. There will only be a marginal change to the energy supply component of the tariff in 2024 for customers in the city of Zurich and in the regions of the Grisons that ewz supplies directly.
In contrast to an electricity outage (or blackout), under an electricity shortage there is still electricity available, but at reduced volumes. An electricity shortage arises when the demand for electrical energy exceeds the available supply due to low production, transmission or import capacities over several days, weeks or months.
The public is being called on to reduce electricity consumption on a voluntary basis, but if that isn’t enough, the federal authorities will convene the ‘Organisation for Power Supply in Extraordinary Situations’ (OSTRAL). In the event of an electricity shortage, the authorities will introduce a range of measures by order.
Bans and consumption restrictions
- To conserve energy, the Federal Council would ban energy-intensive applications which are not absolutely essential (saunas, jetted hot tubs, swimming pools, air conditioning, escalators, shop window lighting, neon signs, etc.).
Rationing
- All bulk consumers would then be obliged to reduce their energy volumes by a mandated amount to prevent outages.
- In autumn 2021, the Federal Office for National Economic Supply and OSTRAL mounted a communication campaign, with electricity services writing to their bulk consumers with concrete details about OSTRAL. ‘If electricity supplies drop, Switzerland will be relying on your support,’ said Guy Parmelin, member of the Federal Council and head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, in a video statement on 27 September 2021.
Rolling outages: a last resort
The goal is clear: with solidarity and a common will we have to save enough electricity that we can avoid outages at all costs. Otherwise, the following measures may be mandated as a last resort:
- Rolling outages of electricity grids by sub-region in two stages
- Centralised control of Switzerland’s pool of power plants
Where technically feasible, this will not affect operations of systemic relevance, such as hospitals, water supply facilities, telecommunications and waste management.
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