REPOWER

Disclosure informs consumers about the composition of the electricity they buy. The idea is to increase demand for renewables by raising awareness of the origins of the energy consumed. You will find details of Repower Switzerland’s disclosure policy here (German and Italian only).

Disclosure is based on EU Directives 2009/72 EG and 2003/54/EC, and is implemented on a national basis. Switzerland has also developed its own EU-compatible solution.

The energy mix on the supplier and consumer side will always be different, because electricity and environmental value added are also traded across borders. While hydropower accounted for a good 55 per cent of the supplier energy mix in Switzerland in 2007, the figure was only around one third on the consumer side; in other words, around 15 terawatt hours were not used for domestic supply.

This, of course, refers to the power quality rather than to the kilowatt hours actually produced. Guarantees of origin are an excellent way of putting disclosure into practice. This is because energy procured on the exchange does not include any information on the origins of the electricity. For this reason it would make sense for not only renewables, but all fuels and thus all generation facilities, to be registered in a national system of guarantees of origin.

As long as this is not the case, a national residual mix has to be calculated on the basis of the best available information. This can be defined on the basis of trading activity and the use of renewables (guarantees of origin), etc. Calculating the residual mix is complex and time-consuming. To deal with this issue, projects and working parties have been established at European level, with Switzerland also actively participating.