Electricity consumption falls 3.1% in 2014

In 2014, the following changes were seen in the most significant factors influencing electricity consumption:

• Development of the economy: Switzerland's gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 2.0% in 2014 (source: State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, SECO).
• Development of the population: According to the "mean population growth" scenario 2010 of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO), the country's population is increasing by around 0.9% per annum. (The SFSO has not yet published any official data relating to the development of the population in 2014).
• Weather: In 2014, the number of heating degree days decreased over the previous year by 19.9% (see table in appendix). Since nearly 10% of the electricity consumed in Switzerland is used for heating (according to the analysis of energy consumption by specific use, SFOE/Prognos 2014), electricity consumption fell in 2014 compared to 2013 because Switzerland experienced one of the warmest years since records began to be kept in 1864.

The domestic electricity production rose in 2014 by 1.9% to 69.6 billion kWh (2013: 68.3 billion kWh). After the record in production achieved in 2001, this constitutes the second highest electricity output ever recorded.
Hydropower plants generated 0.7% less electricity than in the previous year (fluvial power plants, - 2.9%; storage power plants, + 1.2%). In the summer, hydropower production rose by 0.8%, while in the two winter quarters production fell by 2.5%.
Electricity production from the five Swiss nuclear power plants (NPP) rose by 6.0% to reach a new peak of 26.4 billion kWh (2013: 24.9 billion kWh). The availability rate of Switzerland's NPPs was 90.9% in 2014 (2013: 86.1%).
Hydropower plants contributed 56.4% to overall electricity production, followed by nuclear power plants (37.9%) and conventional thermal and other power plants (5.7%).

With imports totalling 37.4 billion kWh and exports of 42.9 billion kWh, the balance for 2014 was an export surplus of 5.5 billion kWh (2013: export surplus of 2.4 billion kWh).

Bundesamt für Energie BFE (2015): www.bfe.admin.ch [1]