The secure supply of electricity in Switzerland and Europe is one of today's most important issues: politicians are urgently called on to take decisions and act. The most important points are summed up below.
The reasons for grid expansion are manifold. Rising electricity consumption, new power plants at home and abroad and the feeding in of electricity from renewable energies present the transmission system with major challenges. Depending on the market, daily or yearly situation, congestion can occur at certain points in the grid and lead to bottlenecks. 2010 was a case in point, when Swissgrid had to restrict on several occasions the electricity generated by hydropower in the Alps. What is more, the existing grid dates back an average 40 years, at which time it was planned and realised from neither a nationwide nor an international perspective. This means that the grid is in urgent need of modernisation.
Today the approval process for power lines lasts at least nine to twelve years, which can be attributed to opportunities for lodging objections and to the large number of bodies involved. Upgrading and expanding electricity transmission systems always meets with resistance. Expanding the grid is not only a technical challenge but a socio-political one as well. Only 150 kilometres of new grid have been laid in the past ten years.
As the national grid company, Swissgrid is responsible for the secure, reliable and cost-effective operation of the Swiss transmission system. This system is some 6700 kilometres in length and constitutes an important link between electricity generation and consumption via which electricity flows from large power plants to regional and local distribution networks and from there to the end users. Under the Electricity Supply Act (StromVG), Swissgrid will be the owner of the Swiss transmission system from 1 January 2013. As of this date Swissgrid will also be responsible for the system's maintenance and renewal.
Switzerland is connected with its neighbours via some 40 power lines and for decades has acted as the hub for electricity and for balancing peaks in demand and production. In Europe there are plans to create so-called electricity corridors in order to increase the security of supply. Their aim is to expand Europe's existing electricity grids in order to enable the transport of electricity from renewable energies Thanks to its central location in Europe and numerous reservoirs in the Alps, Switzerland could assume the function of a «battery». To be realised, this vision requires the creation of efficient grids. This is the only way to transfer major quantities of electricity to Switzerland for storage before transferring it out again from its reservoirs.
