Electricity is always flowing and the energy sector is always active – 24/7, 365 days a year. New grid projects, exciting facts about electricity, digitalisation, innovations, the environment – we regularly publish informative articles on a wide range of topics. Always up-to-date, always with our finger on the pulse. Welcome to our blog!
It’s not just people who can freeze, our lines can too. And they can even crack. This blog post explains what Swissgrid is doing about this and how it works.
In Sils substation, weasels are helping Swissgrid to keep the mouse population under control. But Swissgrid is also offering the endangered species a new and valuable habitat.
In the new brochure “Substations and Transformers – Important Elements in the Transmission Grid”, we describe the role of switchgear and transformers in the transmission grid in simplified terms.
EU transmission system operators have had to implement the 70% rule since 1 January 2020, with a transition period until the end of 2025. The impact of this rule on Switzerland is not easy to explain. We’ll try all the same.
In the future, new decision support tools could help with the assessment of voltage stability by indicating potential courses of action. Katharina Kaiser devoted her Master’s thesis at ETH Zurich to the topic, with guidance from Swissgrid.
Cable laying for the underground link between La Bâtiaz and Le Verney in Martigny is currently under way. Delivery of the twelve cable reels has been taking place in stages since the beginning of December, as the cables need to be warmed up before being installed in the gallery. The underground cable link is scheduled to be commissioned at the end of March 2022.
Without interrupting the transmission of electricity
Since 5 November 2021, the electricity produced by the hydroelectric power plant in Fionnay in Valais has been transported via Swissgrid’s 220 kV Fionnay–Riddes overhead line.
Swissgrid is testing the use of augmented reality glasses for substation inspections in a pilot project with Rimon Technologies GmbH, an ETH spin-off. The initial results and feedback from employees and service providers are promising.
Thanks to the initiative by naturschutzlösungen and Pro Natura, a new habitat is being created for yellow-bellied toads — under Swissgrid extra-high-voltage masts, of all places.
At a technical level, Swissgrid is doing everything needed to maintain secure system operation. However, private-law agreements between transmission system operators are not an adequate substitute for an electricity agreement in the long term. Swissgrid is reaching the limits of possible solutions at a technical level.
The third part of the blog series on the topic of resilience in the transmission grid looks at the human factor. We explain how Swissgrid defines processes to minimise the risk of errors by every single employee as well as how we mitigate the effects of errors.
