Electricity industry in Switzerland

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Grande Dixence gravity dam 1965

The electricity industry in Switzerland has an annual generation of around 63  terawatt hours (2012) and supplies not only private end users but also industrial customers and businesses with electrical energy . It has an estimated turnover of around 14.1 billion francs (2010) and around 21,000 employees.

history

Direct current

Bürgin DC machine, around 1880

Emil Bürgin designed the first mass-produced direct current dynamo for machine operation in 1875 . In St. Moritz, in the summer of 1879, the first DC - arc -Beleuchtungsanlage of Switzerland and the first small hydro power plant with 7 kW for lighting of the dining room at the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz of Johannes Badrutt commissioned.

Limmatwerk Letten from 1878

Lausanne received the first city lighting with a (180 HP ) power plant in 1882 . In 1883, the Zürcher Telefonesellschaft built and operated an arc lighting system in the station hall and over the tracks of the Zurich main station with the first power cable used in Switzerland: the turbine was driven with high-pressure water from the city. The power cable was single-line, the return line was through the earth. The first permanent direct current transmission led from 1884 from the power station in the Taubenloch Gorge to the wire drawing shop of the United Wire Works Biel in Bözingen . The first federal electricity company was built in 1885 on the Waffenplatz in Thun and equipped with two Francis turbines ( Rieter , Winterthur) and two direct current generators ( Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon ).

In May 1886, the first Swiss power plant Thorenberg in Littau - it was the first in the world - supplied electricity (alternating current) to third parties for the first time via a power grid. The first low-pressure power plants were built in Zurich on the Limmat ( Letten power plant ) in 1878 and in Geneva ( La Coulouvrenière ) in 1886 . In 1886 the 2000 hp Taulan power station near Montreux was inaugurated to supply the first electric tram in Switzerland, inaugurated in 1888, and the second in Europe from Vevey to Chillon with electricity and, from 1889, to publicly illuminate the cities of Vevey and Montreux. With a height of fall of 250 m, it is the first high-pressure power plant in Switzerland to operate electrical generators. On the Kehrsiten-Bürgenstock line , the first direct-current powered cable car in Switzerland was inaugurated in 1888, which was fed by a 3 km long 1800 volt cable.

Development of DC power plants:

year Power plants. Total output MW Power per plant kW
1890 25th 4th 160
1895 88 20th 360
1898 108 55 510
1900 112 71 710

No more DC power plants were built after 1898.

Alternating current

Thorenberg power plant 1886

From 1890 to 1900, the number of AC power plants increased from 5 to 60. The company Ganz in Budapest, founded by the Swiss, built the first Swiss AC power plant Thorenberg in Littau for the Troller brothers, using the toroidal transformer invented by their two employees, Károly Zipernowsky and Miksa Déri in 1885 . Three 200 horsepower alternators with a total alternating voltage of 2000 volts supplied electricity via an open air line, which was transformed down to 100 volts at each receiver.

The first high-voltage transmission with alternating current took place in 1891 on the occasion of the International Electrotechnical Exhibition in Frankfurt am Main with a 15kVolt three-phase current at 40 Hz over 175 km from Lauffen am Neckar to Frankfurt am Main with a line loss of 25%. The three-phase system was largely designed by the Swiss engineer Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown .

In 1895 the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies (VSE) was founded with over 400 members today (as of 2015) and the bank for electrical companies , or Elektrobank , in Zurich .

At the end of 1900, around 2000 km of high-voltage lines with around 40,000 poles were laid for regional networks. The boom in industry up to the First World War resulted in a greater demand for electricity, which was satisfied with the construction of some very powerful large power plants with higher water gradients. Transmission voltages, long-distance transmission lines and high-performance transformers had to be adapted. In 1901, the canton of Vaud founded the Compagnie Vaudoise des Forces Motrices des Lacs de Joux et de l'Orbe FMJ (from 1954: Compagnie vaudoise d'électricité ) the first cantonal electricity company in Switzerland. To make better use of the water power in arid winters, around a dozen additional thermal plants were built, which were operated with coal steam engines and later steam turbines.

Around 1910 there were around 7,000 small hydropower plants up to 10 MW in Switzerland (mills, water wheels or small turbines for generating electricity or for purely mechanical use). Many of these plants were later shut down due to a lack of profitability.

Lago Bianco reservoir, Bernina Pass

In 1904, the Ruppoldingen power plant was expanded to become the first Swiss pumped storage power plant with a storage basin on the Born . The first high-voltage line in the high mountains was laid across the Bernina Pass in 1908 with a voltage of 23 kV .

Under the direction of Fritz Ringwald was born from the power station Rathausen AG Central Kraftwerke AG (CKW), in the Central Switzerland built up a supply network and participated in the construction of several power plants. These include the Wassen , Mauvoisin and Göschenen power plants .

From 1913 the Lötschbergbahn and the Rhaetian Railway in the Engadin were operated electrically. The coal shortage during the First World War gave the electrification commission of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), founded in 1912, a strong boost and promoted the electrification of the SBB in six stages from 1919 to 1960. The SBB built its own power plants or participated in plants. One of the first was the Etzelwerk , which was created together with the NOK and operated with the water from the Sihlsee. The construction of the reservoir from 1932 required the resettlement of 500 people, which hardly met any resistance from the population.

The scarcity of fuels after the First World War led to the breakthrough in electrical heating applications ( electric stoves , hot water boilers , storage heaters , bread ovens , dishwashers , washing machines ) in the home, trade and industry. The Swiss electricity industry was able to develop despite the economic crisis. The Oberhasli power plant , founded in 1925, was the first joint venture to build large alpine power plants , in which various partner plants were involved in energy production and assuming the annual costs. The Swiss cooperative for the promotion of electrical energy ( electrical industry , today Infel ) was founded in 1925.

In 1933 the first 150 kV line from Lavorgo to Amsteg was built with a length of 55 km. From 1953 the first overhead lines were operated with the standard voltage of 220 kV and from 1965 with 380 kV. In 1958, the 220 kV power grids of France, Germany and Switzerland were merged in Laufenburg . In 1967 the merger took place on the supra-regional high voltage level with 380 kV and the Elektrizitätsgesellschaft Laufenburg (EGL) developed into the central trading center for European electricity producers.

During and after the Second World War, the construction of large-scale power plants was encouraged, which should primarily eliminate the lack of winter energy. These were the Urserenkraftwerk where all Ursern had been overstowed and about 2,000 people had to be relocated, and the Hinterrhein power plants , in which the village Splügen in the reservoir Rheinwald would have sunk. Both projects failed due to popular resistance. The Göschenen power plant was built in place of the Urseren power plant ; instead of the Rheinwald reservoir, the somewhat smaller Lago di Lei, located on Italian soil, was built as a top storage facility for the Hinterrhein power plant. A third project was the flooding of the Greina . It was issued in several versions and was not definitively withdrawn until 1986.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Maggia Kraftwerke built a hydropower plant with water tunnels in two stages, from the then highest reservoir in Switzerland, the Griessee , via the Altstafel, Robiei , Bavona, Peccia, Carvergno power plants to the Verbano power plant center near Brissago on Lake Maggiore to lead.

In 1965, the Grande Dixence, the largest hydropower plant in Switzerland, whose 285 m high gravity dam is the fourth highest (2015) dam in the world, was completed. The second largest followed in 1968 with the Linth-Limmern , which is receiving an underground pumped storage plant with the “Linthal 2015” project.

The first nuclear power plants were commissioned by Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke AG (NOK) in 1969 with Beznau 1 and 1971 with Beznau 2, Mühleberg followed in 1972, Gösgen in 1979 and Leibstadt in 1984 . The planned sixth nuclear power plant in Kaiseraugst failed due to the resistance of the regional population and environmental groups.

In the 1980s there were around 1200 electricity companies for general national supply and 80 (11% of electricity production) for industry ( Alusuisse , Lonza etc.) and railways ( SBB etc.). In 2000 there were 250,000 km of medium and low voltage networks in Switzerland. In 2007, 53% of the electricity demand was generated with hydropower plants, 42% with nuclear power plants, 3% with conventional thermal power plants and 2% with renewable energies.

Due to the Electricity Supply Act, the national grid company Swissgrid took over the grid from the 18 electricity supply companies in the course of a capital increase on January 3, 2013. With the simultaneous entry in the commercial register, Swissgrid became the new owner of the Swiss transmission network and is therefore solely responsible for the operation, maintenance and expansion of the network.

Electricity in Switzerland

At the beginning of the 1970s, almost 90% of electricity production came from hydropower. With the commissioning of the Swiss nuclear power plants, the share decreased to 60% by 1985 and was 57% in 2018. Hydropower remains the main domestic source of renewable energy.

The 650 hydropower plants (headquarters = at least 300 kW) produce an average of 36.3 terawatt hours of electricity annually (as of January 1, 2018), 48.3% in run-of-river power plants, 47.4% in storage power plants and 4.3% in pumped storage power plants. 63% of the electricity comes from the mountain cantons of Uri, Graubünden, Ticino and Valais. The cantons of Aargau and Bern are also major electricity suppliers. International hydropower plants on border waters produce around 11%. The turnover of hydropower amounts to over 1.8 billion francs (5 Rp / kWh ex works).

With the Federal Energy Strategy 2050 , the annual production from hydropower is to be increased to 37.4 terawatt hours by 2035 and to 38.6 TWh by 2050 by renovating and expanding existing ones and building new hydropower plants. The package of measures for hydropower plants (large hydropower up to 10 MW) includes an adjusted cost-covering feed-in tariff for new plants as well as investment contributions for the renewal and expansion of existing ones.

In Switzerland today (2015) more than 1,000 small hydropower plants with an installed capacity of around 760 MW and a production of 3,400 GWh per year are operated. Since the 1990s, small hydropower plants (up to 10 MW) have been subsidized again with the federal action programs to promote renewable energies.

Alternative energy sources have been promoted since 1990: A 100 kW photovoltaic system was installed on the sound -absorbing walls of the A13 national road near Chur . The first wind farm was built on Mont Crosin in the 1990s and is constantly being modernized. In 1992, Europe's largest photovoltaic solar power plant was built on a 20,000 m² field on Mont Soleil for research and demonstration purposes.

The four largest energy suppliers in Switzerland are Axpo , Alpiq , BKW and Repower .

Legal basis

Energy policy was first enshrined in the Swiss constitution in 1990. Article 89 of the Federal Constitution on energy policy stipulates: The Confederation and the cantons, within the framework of their responsibilities, advocate a sufficient, diversified, safe, economical and environmentally friendly energy supply as well as economical and rational energy consumption. (…) In its energy policy, the Confederation takes into account the efforts of the cantons and communes as well as the economy; it takes into account the conditions in the individual regions of the country and the economic viability . Article 102 of the Federal Constitution is mandatory for the federal government: The federal government ensures that the state is supplied with essential goods and services in the event of threats from power politics or war, as well as in severe shortages that the economy is unable to deal with itself. He takes precautionary measures.

In 1990, all cantons enacted their own energy laws and regulations on the basis of the federal constitution, and the federal government put energy law and ordinance into force on January 1, 1999.

In Switzerland, the electricity market is partially liberalized. Around 50,000 consumers with an annual consumption of over 100 MWh are allowed to purchase their electrical energy on the open market. In 2009 fewer than 100 made use of it. The Federal Council's original goal was to fully liberalize the electricity market by 2003 in step with the EU. The people rejected this step on September 22nd, 2002 with the referendum on the Electricity Market Act (EMG) .

The Federal Council has been negotiating an energy agreement with the EU since 2007. The EU only wants to conclude the agreement, however, if Switzerland agrees to conclude an “institutional framework agreement” (horizontal “institutional questions”) with the EU , with which it would have to adopt EU law “dynamically” (automatically) in the future.

Switzerland as an electricity hub

The European electricity network has been operating under private law since 1958, with the Elektrizitätsgesellschaft Laufenburg (EGL) developing as the central trading center for European electricity producers. The aim of the electricity exchange was to ensure the supply of the participating countries with mutual, contractually secured support. Switzerland secured the power supply endangered in winter with supply contracts for electricity from French nuclear power plants. Over time, electricity trading came to the fore and Laufenburg partially lost its leading role as a trading center.

Today (2015) - especially because of its geographical location and its political independence - around 10% of the electricity exchanged between 34 European countries flows through Switzerland. In 2011, Switzerland imported 83 TWh and exported 81 TWh of electricity, while domestic consumption was 59 TWh. Foreign trade in electricity resulted in a surplus of 1 billion Swiss francs.

Electricity trading is approaching the financial market , with the traded electricity volume around 10 times higher than the electricity physically available. Competitors from outside the industry (banks, hedge funds) are pushing into the electricity business. The trading activities of the Swiss electricity trading companies are subject to the Stock Exchange and Securities Trading Act and the control of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma).

International recognition

In 2010 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), based in New York, honored the “Stern von Laufenburg” as a “historic milestone in the history of electricity”. The merger of the power grids between Germany, France and Switzerland over 50 years ago heralded the birth of the European network operation and the switchgear with its technology at the time set the first worldwide standards in high-voltage technology.

Historic hydropower plants

Small power station Ottenbach, switchboard from 1920

The following museum power plants and smaller power plants can be visited according to the respective website:

See also

literature

  • W. Wyssling: The development of the Swiss electricity works and their components . Swiss Electrotechnical Association, 1946.
  • Hans Lienhard: The Swiss electricity industry . Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-258-01020-X .
  • David Gugerli: Streams of speech. On the electrification of Switzerland 1880–1914 . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-905311-91-7 (online)
  • Fernand Schwab: 300 years of the wire industry: commemorative publication for the three hundredth anniversary of the Bözingen plant of the Vereinigte Drahtwerke AG Biel 1634–1934. Solothurn 1934.
  • Anton Gunzinger: Kraftwerk Schweiz - Plea for an energy transition with a future . Verlag Zytglogge, Bern 2015, ISBN 978-3-7296-0888-7 .
  • Claudia Wohlfahrtstätter: Innovation in the Swiss electricity industry in the field of tension between security of supply and liberalization . Dissertation . Zurich 2010

Web links

Commons : Energy in Switzerland  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Statistical Office (FSO) 2001.
  2. ↑ Taubenlochstrom Bözingen
  3. ^ Association 300 years of Kander Durchstich
  4. ^ Mühlenfreunde: Turbinenhaus Waffenplatz Thun
  5. ^ Website of the VSE
  6. ↑ Ringwald, Fritz . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 75 , no. 43 , October 26, 1957, pp. 691-692 ( e-periodica.ch ).
  7. ↑ Lukas Hämmerle: History of the Swiss electricity grid. 2001.
  8. ↑ Swissgrid: “Der Stern von Laufenburg”, 1967: 17 countries are united in the (Western) European UCPTE network ( memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.swissgrid.ch
  9. ↑ Power plant projects and landscape protection. Sumvitg municipality, accessed December 8, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Handelszeitung from January 4, 2013: Swiss electricity grid now belongs to Swissgrid
  11. ↑ a b c hydropower. Federal Office of Energy SFOE, May 1, 2018, accessed on July 15, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Federal Office of Energy SFOE: Small hydropower plant program
  13. ↑ Simon Banholzer, Tonja Iten: Short study: Strommix 2018. (PDF; 3 MB) Swiss Energy Foundation , July 17, 2019, accessed on July 25, 2019 .
  14. ↑ The Federal Council: Energy Act (EnG)
  15. ↑ Switzerland has liberalized two of the four central elements of the OECD criteria for opening up the electricity market: “Wholesaling” (since 1970) and “Third-party network access” (since the Federal Supreme Court decision in 2003). “Competition in sales” and “online incentive regulation” were more strictly regulated in 2009.
  16. ^ Another pinprick by the EU Commission. In: NZZ. February 11, 2014: For the time being, no more electricity talks
  17. ↑ Swissgrid of August 19, 2010: "Stern von Laufenburg" pioneering achievement in electricity history ( Memento of September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ EWZ Kraftwerk Höngg ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stadt-zuerich.ch
  19. ^ AEW Energie AG: Museum Reusskraftwerk Bremgarten
  20. ↑ Kappelerhof Power Plant Electric Museum, Baden
  21. ↑ Dornachbrugg small hydropower plant
  22. ↑ Blauhaus small hydropower station and Glacier du Rhône
  23. ↑ Doku-Zug: 300 Years of the Wire Industry ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.doku-zug.ch
  24. ↑ wohlfahrtstaetter.ch ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wohlfahrtstaetter.ch