Energy crisis: even Switzerland fears a blackout (but they will buy ours)
Switzerland's energy supply remains uncertain for the coming winter and problems with sufficient electricity capacity cannot be ruled out, the Swiss Federal Electricity Commission (Elcom) said at its annual press conference this week.
Switzerland's nuclear power generation may be lower during the winter, but especially some of Switzerland's neighboring countries, especially France, may export less electricity. Recall that this country has major energy production problems due to a series of coincidences between the breakdowns of nuclear plants and poorly planned maintenance.
Due to the projected lower availability of French nuclear power and France's electricity exports to Switzerland, Swiss imports of electricity generated in France are likely to be much lower this winter than in previous winter seasons, Elcom said.
Therefore, Switzerland may have to cover its electricity needs, equal to around 4 gigawatt hours (GWh), with imports from other neighboring countries, Germany, Austria and Italy. However, these countries' availability of energy exports would depend heavily on available fossil fuels, especially natural gas. Therefore, if Russian gas is cut, Switzerland could also risk a blackout.
The Federal Electricity Commission has found that several uncertainties remain about the security of electricity supply in Switzerland for the coming winter.
According to a survey by Elcom of 613 Swiss electricity suppliers, most operators expect electricity tariffs to rise by around 47%, which means that electricity prices for households will rise by around 20%.
The rise in electricity prices was driven by soaring prices for natural gas, coal and carbon dioxide emissions in recent months, Elcom said, adding that even less nuclear power generation in France in recent months. months played a role in rising prices.
Switzerland, like the rest of Europe, is preparing for a surge in electricity prices in the winter as the EU – of which Switzerland is not a part – seeks to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas. . Russia, for its part, has already stopped supplying gas to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and to customers in Denmark and Germany who refused to pay for gas in rubles. Then the coal payment schemes that affect all the thermal generation from fossil fuels in the EU were not interrupted, so that, despite the very high prices, high taxes are also paid for carbon in Brussels.
However, Switzerland does not risk a blackout, rather it will buy our energy at very high prices, leaving us in the dark.
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The article Energy crisis: even Switzerland fears a blackout (but they will buy ours) comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/crisi-energetica-perfino-la-svizzera-teme-il-black-out-ma-si-compreranno-la-nostra/ on Sat, 04 Jun 2022 09:00:33 +0000.