Elcom President is entering winter “a little calmer”.

“Actually, there’s a certain relief,” the Chairman of the Electricity Commission said in an interview with the AWP news agency. This means: “We can enter this winter a little calmer.”

Power outages have become “quite less likely”, but they cannot be ignored. Scenarios where “it can still be tight” are conceivable. There is still war in Europe. “And this year we learned that things can happen that we couldn’t even imagine before.”

Therefore, it is highly recommended that you still be economical with electricity. “Anything we don’t need at the beginning of winter and remains in reservoirs is in our hands if towards the end of winter it could be a problem again.”

For example, if there is a very cold winter or if there are attacks on gas infrastructures in Europe. In this respect, it was also right to prepare the public for possible problems and to take measures to eliminate critical situations.

There are also some unforeseen things for the next winter of 2023/24: For example, today it is not certain whether European gas storage facilities will be filled next summer. Because in 2022 – despite the cuts – there was still a significant gas shipment from Russia until the middle of the year. But next year Europe probably won’t be able to buy more Russian gas, and it remains to be seen how much of a substitute it can be.

“Therefore, we are pleased with the domestic reserves that are currently being created at high speed and that will be available to us this year and next year.” This concerns the hydroelectric reserve and emergency thermal power plant currently under construction at Birr. However, this winter, it would be operated with heating fuel, not natural gas.

French nuclear power plants also remain a risk factor: Given the corrosion damage discovered at some power plants, there are still uncertainties. However, one of the reasons for the easing is the French announcement that they will reactivate a significant part of their nuclear power plants this winter.

The fundamental problem of 2025 will continue. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis, the federal government had already warned that there could be a bottleneck in three years.

Therefore, Elcom strongly approves the request to build an additional 1000 megawatts of capacity in Switzerland by 2025/26 to overcome any bottleneck. Regulatory authority relies primarily on gas power. Luginbühl said it is assumed that the situation with natural gas will return to normal sooner or later. “Europe will need natural gas for a very long time.” And Switzerland needs less than 1 percent of Europe’s gas.

However, at the same time, less gas capacity would be required and more solar could be built, if, for example, high mountain PV systems were actually built and put into operation. Most recently, on Tuesday, Switzerland’s largest energy company, Axpo, announced that it wants to build several such systems in the mountains as soon as possible and invest heavily in solar power.

Luginbühl stressed that there is an urgent need for capacity increase in Germany. Regarding electricity supply, Switzerland is still dependent on imports from abroad.

But: Since 2004, Switzerland has imported an average of 4 terawatt hours of electricity in winter. “If the energy strategy had been implemented as originally planned and nuclear power plants were closed, this share would have increased to 15 terawatt hours.”

“In our view, that wouldn’t be responsible,” said Luginbühl.

(SDA)