2024: renewable electricity requires a working system

An annual total is not enough

An annual balance compares quantities produced and consumed. It does not prove that a system can deliver the power required every hour, in every region and under adverse conditions. Summer and winter present different circumstances. Electrifying heating and transport makes coordination across time more important.

The law therefore connects domestic generation, storage, efficiency, networks and flexibility. A generating plant without a timely grid connection does not yet provide its expected service. Reduced consumption during a tight hour can provide a benefit poorly captured by annual totals.

Giving investment a longer horizon

The environment and energy department’s dossier explains that support instruments were extended until 2035. The existing grid surcharge of 2.3 centimes per kilowatt-hour is not increased by this provision, but collected for longer. Its rate, duration and other bill components are different matters. None alone determines the final price.

Greater predictability helps investors decide. It does not remove construction costs, connection delays or material constraints. Public commitments therefore need evidence of completed installations, availability and production conditions. Awarding support is not equivalent to operational capacity.

Roofs and façades play a major part in the authorities’ approach. Generation, building maintenance and local consumption should be coordinated. Tenants do not all control their building’s roof, however. Access to the benefits must be arranged rather than assumed.

Storage shifts energy rather than creating it

Storage makes energy available later. Its usefulness depends on duration, losses, power and opportunities to recharge. A battery shifting production by a few hours is not equivalent to seasonal capacity. One storage concept cannot answer every supply question.

Hydropower development and winter availability address a particular need. They also involve environmental, territorial and financial choices. Approving a general law does not replace assessment of individual projects or every authorisation. Planning should make incompatible uses of the same resource visible.

Security reserves must also be distinguished from ordinary generation. Capacity held for exceptional shortages need not operate all year. Part of its price pays for availability. Comparing it directly with the cost of an ordinarily generated kilowatt-hour gives an incomplete assessment.

Networks determine what can be shared

Networks connect generation and use. Decentralised installations change flows and can require reinforcement. Bills therefore fund shared infrastructure as well as purchased energy. The social question concerns how these costs are calculated and distributed.

Flexibility moves consumption or injection when feasible. An industrial operation, an electrically heated household and someone dependent on medical equipment do not have identical choices. Paying for adjustment must distinguish real flexibility from needs that must remain protected.

Measurement and operating data require rules too. Their quality allows services to be checked; their use must respect users’ rights. Technical control does not replace understandable responsibilities and charges.

Implementation after the mandate

On 20 November 2024, the Federal Council arranged staged entry into force, with a first part on 1 January 2025 and a second on 1 January 2026. These later steps distinguish the vote from actual application. Developments already observed in 2024 cannot simply be attributed to the new instruments.

For the PCP, supply security must be assessed alongside access: coordinated investment, understandable bills, protection of essential needs and scrutiny of network costs. Domestic generation can strengthen collective capacity without implying complete isolation. The test is whether the system delivers useful energy at the right time, with clear responsibilities and a defensible distribution of effort.