Industry president insists on faster expansion of distribution grids
Published: Saturday, Jun 29th 2024, 13:00
Back to Live Feed
Not only the electricity transmission grids, but also the electricity distribution grids need to be expanded more quickly. This is the view of Martin Schwab, the new President of the Association of Electricity Companies.
The Federal Council wants to further accelerate the approval procedures for the conversion and expansion of the electricity transmission grid. The bill has been in the consultation process since Wednesday.
Martin Schwab, CKW CEO and President of the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies (VSE), called for more speed for district distribution grids on SRF Radio's "Samstagsrundschau" program. These would also have to be built much faster, and the bill would not help much.
He would like to see more flexible regulations for transformer stations, for example. These are currently only allowed to be built in development areas. It is sometimes difficult to find a location for a transformer house in a single-family home district.
By voting yes to the Electricity Act, the electorate approved the simplified planning of 16 hydropower plants. The authorities and associations had agreed on 15, and parliament added the 16th. Schwab finds it "regrettable" that "individual associations" have now pulled out and still want to lodge an appeal, as he said.
"With every objection to one of the projects, the probability increases that we will need gas-fired power plants to secure supply," said Schwab. "The 16 projects are urgent, and so is the expansion of wind and solar energy production in the Alps."
He also fears that a Yes to the biodiversity initiative with its protection requirements for landscapes would slow down the expansion of wind power in particular. The initiative committee disagrees: it argues that interventions are also possible in national protected areas if there are overriding interests of nationwide importance.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic