According to preliminary statistics released by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, electricity consumption in Switzerland increased by 1.4% to 58.2 TWh.
Domestic consumption (including losses occurring in transmission and distribution) was 62.6 TWh. Domestic power generation contracted by 5.3% to 66 TWh (63.7 TWh net of electricity consumed by storage pumps), due to a 16% contraction in nuclear power generation, that was partly offset by a 10.6% increase in conventional power plants (4.4 TWh). This fall in production is due to the exceptional outages at Beznau I-II and Leibstadt nuclear power plants, reducing the availability rate of nuclear power plants from 91% in 2014 to 76% in 2015. Hydropower generation remained broadly stable (+0.5%) at 39.5 TWh, with higher generation in the first quarter and lower production in the other quarters (dry year). In 2015, hydropower plants contributed by 60% to overall electricity generation, followed by nuclear plants (33.5%), conventional thermal plants and plants using renewable energy (6.6%).
Lower electricity generation contributed to a strong reduction in the export surplus, from 5.5 TWh in 2014 to 1 TWh in 2015 (43 TWh exported and 42 TWh imported). Electricity consumption rose by 1.4% to 58.2 TWh.