With the growing surpluses from photovoltaics — particularly during the summer — some European consumers are now encouraged, even paid, to increase their electricity consumption at certain times of the day. But what about Switzerland?
What should be done with surplus solar energy, particularly frequent during summer peaks? This question is one of the main unresolved challenges of the energy transition. The problem is now widely known: renewable energies depend heavily on weather conditions and therefore see their production vary greatly according to the seasons and times of day.
In the event of excess production and in the absence of sufficient demand — as is increasingly often the case in summer with photovoltaics — this electricity must be evacuated, or even destroyed. This is referred to as "wasted energy", that is to say energy produced but not valorized. This situation does not only concern Switzerland, but all countries engaged in a transition to renewable energy infrastructures. It therefore pushes countries to be original in trying to reduce the waste linked to this growing overabundance of energy.
In France, the electricity supplier ENGIE, for example, launched last autumn the "Happy Green Hours", an offer allowing customers to benefit from two hours of free electricity during the afternoon. With the help of commercials still broadcast on French channels, the producer seeks to encourage the adoption of new consumption habits within households.
Last year, the Netherlands also launched the national campaign "Zet ook de knop om" ("Also change your energy habits"), aimed at encouraging households to move part of their electricity consumption outside of the evening demand peaks and thus reduce network congestion. This initiative echoes one recently implemented in the United Kingdom.
During the spring, the United Kingdom in fact unveiled its own new national strategy designed to more effectively absorb the growing surpluses of electricity during the summer and to ease the strain on both the grid and British households' bills.
New measures have thus been developed to encourage citizens to increase their energy consumption when production reaches record levels. In collaboration with national suppliers, these incentives should be accompanied by adapted tariffs, with electricity offered at a very reduced price, or even for free.
What about Switzerland? Is the country equally active with the population to encourage them to review their way of consuming electricity and avoid having to resort to curtailment of installations, a practice that involves throttling production?
According to the Swiss Association of Electricity Companies (AES), the answer seems positive. It is in fact already relatively common that "some consumers — active on the free market — are remunerated for increasing their consumption during periods of production surplus, when electricity prices on the market become zero or even negative."
In addition to the more dynamic pricing envisaged by Swiss electricity companies, another avenue to limit the consequences of summer solar peaks lies in more local solutions. Romande Energie notably emphasizes the advantages of self-consumption as well as the installation of batteries to meet potential energy needs later on."The motivation of the producer-customer would then no longer lie in remuneration for the energy injected into the grid, but rather in the significant reduction of their electricity bill, the price per kWh drawn from the grid being higher than that of the kWh injected," explains Michèle Cassani, spokesperson for the Romandy DSO.According to the Federal Office of Energy (OFEN), self-consumption indeed plays a central role in the profitability of current photovoltaic installations. "Electricity consumed directly on site is subject to neither network usage fees nor the various taxes applied to electricity drawn from the public grid," recalls Fabien Lüthi. The OFEN media and policy specialist further specifies that "the savings achieved thanks to self-consumption now constitute the main factor of profitability for solar energy producers". O.W.
While specifying that the British solution concerns only electricity suppliers and marketers (CFO), and not distribution system operators (GRD), Romande Energie mentions, for its part, the possibility — introduced this year — of offering dynamic tariffs taking into account geographic zones. This flexibility could lead to negative tariffs for the network component of the electricity bill.
"This dynamic pricing is currently being tested with several customers. Early feedback is encouraging, because it shows a real impact on consumption habits, with users adapting their behavior more according to price signals," says Michèle Cassani, spokesperson for Romande Energie.
This tariff dynamism is clearly one of the central pillars of the Swiss strategy aimed at encouraging more flexible electricity consumption. "Thanks to variable tariffs — depending on day/night periods, winter/summer or even hour by hour — network operators can encourage consumers to use more electricity when it is abundant and, consequently, cheaper," confirms Fabien Lüthi, media and policy specialist at the Federal Office of Energy (OFEN).
The Swiss Association of Electricity Companies also anticipates a widespread adoption of dynamic pricing: "Households will increasingly adapt their electricity consumption according to price variations, notably thanks to the development of connected devices and smart systems capable of automatically controlling certain energy uses," explains Annalisa Job, head of communications at the AES.
However, this transformation of habits will probably not happen spontaneously. Unlike the advertisements broadcast in France or the national campaigns conducted in other European countries, Switzerland remains still very/too timid when it comes to communication.
"While DSOs have the possibility to put in place incentive measures to influence consumption and to communicate them directly to the customers concerned, this possibility is still rarely used," laments Fabien Lüthi. The OFEN spokesperson nevertheless recalls that, through SuisseEnergie, the Swiss have detailed information on the optimal use of photovoltaic installations.
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