Most of Switzerland's transmission lines are more than 40 years old, and many of them no longer meet present-day requirements. These lines were originally designed to transport significantly lower quantities of electricity, most of which was produced at centralised power plants. Today, large quantities of electricity are transported and an ever increasing number of decentralised producers are feeding electricity into the grid from renewable energy sources. Their fluctuating production levels (e.g. in the case of wind energy and photovoltaic systems) make regulation of the networks more complex.
In view of this, the network infrastructure will have to be renewed and expanded in the next few years. The objective of the electricity networks strategy is to secure the development of the electricity networks in line with the new requirements and without delay, and it is therefore a major factor for the implementation of "Energy Strategy 2050".
The national transmission system operator Swissgrid is responsible for the safe operation of Switzerland's high-voltage network.
