Swiss electricity market adapted to facilitate local flexibility markets

Abstract

The energy transition poses new challenges to the Swiss electricity consumer market which will lead to electricity shortages and financial losses if they are not addressed properly. This master thesis research therefore describes how the Swiss electricity consumer market could be adapted to deal with the energy transition while respecting the main stakeholders' interests. A consequence of the energy transition is that fuel-based electricity producers, such as nuclear power stations, will be replaced by renewable but volatile energy sources. This results in more fluctuating and less predictable electricity production. However, the electricity supply should always match the electricity demand at any time. The power network might get damaged or even collapse if the electricity production and consumption cannot be aligned. Without the fuel-based power stations, this balancing becomes very difficult to achieve because so far, only the supply side has been adjusted to match the demand side. Strategies exist that can be used to influence the consumption behaviour and hence align the demand to the supply. However, these strategies have requirements that cannot be fulfilled by the current Swiss electricity consumer market. The market has to be adapted in order to resolve this issue and enable the energy transition....