The Swiss Federal Council has unveiled plans to entirely liberalise the domestic power market and develop renewable electricity production. It has launched the consultation procedure to amend the electricity supply law (LApEl, Loi sur l’approvisionnement en électricité) and the procedure is expected to last until the end of January 2019. This reform is meant to provide a new framework for the Swiss electricity market.
So far, 5/6 of electricity purchases take place on open markets but 99% of retail and business consumers remain bound to regulated suppliers. The full opening of the power market would enable consumers to switch to the liberalised market and to return to the regulated market. They will be able to choose the most attractive means of supply for them (choice of power supplier or electric product, clean production or use of their flexibility during consumption). Electricity consumers could then influence the future evolution of the electricity supply, allowing innovative products and services as well as digitization to develop more quickly. End consumers remaining in the regulated market will receive only Swiss electricity, which will include a minimum share of renewable power.
Switzerland will continue to trade electricity but will not provide additional state incentives for investments in capacities. The country has no plans for a capacity market, as its installed capacity will remain much higher than its power needs, even after the planned decommissioning of its nuclear power plants. However, power transmission network operator Swissgrid will issue yearly tenders for storage reserves (pumped-storage plants, waste-to-energy power plants, batteries, etc.) that will be financed by network use fees.
Network use fees will be adapted to make power supply more regional and avoid expensive expansions. Power used by the end consumer (kW) will now have more weight than the energy withdrawn (kWh). End consumers will be free to decide on the use of their flexibility: if distribution network operators decide to use flexibility, they will have to compensate end consumers. The "Sunshine" regulation will be legally guaranteed to improve transparency over power distributors.