“An electricity agreement is essential to ensure that Switzerland's climate and energy targets are met. It would strengthen the security and resilience of our supply while reducing costs,” explains Michael Frank, Director of the AES.
Switzerland played a founding role in establishing the European interconnected grid, bringing together in 1958 the German, French and Swiss transmission networks at the "Laufenbourg star". At the heart of Europe, it is now the hub of electricity and has 41 electrical interconnection points with its neighbours – a record. Every day, large flows of electricity from neighbouring countries transit through our country, ignoring geographical and political borders. Our dependence on cross-border exchanges, both imports and exports, is a reality.
Paradoxically, it now finds itself excluded from many platforms and relegated to the status of a third country, forced to watch from afar the evolution of the European electricity market without being able to contribute to it. This sidelining is not without consequences, exposing us to growing challenges that compromise both our security of supply, our competitiveness and ultimately increase our costs.
Switzerland is at a key moment for its energy future. The negotiations with the European Union on an electricity agreement, finalized last December and ready to be approved, open a door to a more stable, safer and less costly electricity supply.
Without a regulated collaboration with the EU, the stability of the Swiss power grid is increasingly threatened. Although an integral part of the European interconnected grid, the Swiss transmission network is increasingly escaping the control of Swiss actors. Unscheduled flows frequently cross the country, while the heavy strain on the grid makes the necessary maintenance work difficult.
To maintain grid stability, actors are forced to resort to costly solutions, such as balancing energy or national electricity reserves. This situation leads to higher costs, directly affecting electricity prices for consumers.
To effectively guarantee its supply and allow optimal use of its energy infrastructure, Switzerland depends on sustained cross-border exchange of electricity, both imports and exports. This dependence is increasing with the gradual phase-out of nuclear power and the growing electrification of mobility, heating and industry.
From 2025, the European Union plans to implement a new rule requiring that 70% of cross-border network capacities be reserved for intra-European exchanges. This represents a major challenge for Switzerland, whose supply is particularly vulnerable in winter.
Indeed, if our European neighbours have difficulty complying with this rule, they could be forced to unilaterally limit their electricity exports to Switzerland in order to meet their internal needs. Such a situation could reduce our import and export capacities, directly compromising our security of supply.
Switzerland has everything to gain from joining a strengthened European energy cooperation. This choice, rooted in the reality of our country's needs, is an essential step to ensure the achievement of our climate and energy objectives.
An electricity agreement would help strengthen supply security in Switzerland, notably by (re)integrating our country into the various European platforms and processes. It would thus put an end to the unnecessary endangering of grid stability, which is today the result of the erosion of cooperation and the exclusion from market mechanisms, and would reduce the need for electricity reserves in the country.
By guaranteeing non-discriminatory market access, the agreement would help ensure that the efficiency gains resulting from market integration, which currently accrue only to the EU, also lead to a reduction in costs on our territory.
Finally, an agreement would create legal certainty and would in particular offer protection against new arbitrary decisions by the EU. Switzerland could participate in the development of future rules of the common internal market.
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