It was at the Lucerne trade fair in April 2022 that a girl accompanied by her grandmother asked one of our employees, «But if the lines are in the ground, where do all the birds sit?» Fortunately, Switzerland is full of trees – so alternatives are available. Nevertheless, the girl was right: birds like to perch on overhead lines. Find out in our blog post whether this is dangerous and, if so, what the dangers are.

Large solar plants are to be built in the Swiss mountains by as early as 2025. This represents a challenge for grid operators: they have to implement the grid connections.

The grid capacity of the Swiss transmission grid is precisely calculated to the nearest quarter of an hour. If unplanned electricity suddenly flows through our grid, i.e. electricity that was not foreseen in the calculations, this can cause overloads of grid elements.

Whether Sotto or Sopraceneri, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland is a captivating location with picturesque mountain scenery and deep blue lakes. Just like elsewhere in Switzerland, these landscapes must be protected. Swissgrid has taken this to heart in the Airolo – Lavorgo grid construction project.

The new «Experience Energy!» exhibition was inaugurated at the Swiss Museum of Transport on 4 April 2023. Swissgrid features in it.

Beatriz Alvarez, Specialist Ancillary Services & Analytics, and Julius Schwachheim, Head of Capacity and Congestion Management, talk about their careers at the grid company as well as their «humble beginnings» as interns.

For safety reasons, only low-growing flora is found on routes for overhead lines and in substations. This environment offers the ideal living conditions for endangered animal and plant species.

At the end of March 2023, Swissgrid and the Swiss railway operator SBB submitted a planning application for the replacement of the submarine cables between Brusino and Morcote. The cable route is 2.8 km long and the total investment amounts to around CHF 8.7 million.

Extra-high-voltage lines as a danger to aviation

The Swissgrid substation at Fionnay GD in the Valais, which is located in a mountain cave, has been renovated. This is where the energy generated by the Fionnay / Grande Dixence power plant is fed into the electricity transmission system.

In the first post in the blog series, we looked at the home of the future and saw an energy-optimised, networked work of art. For this vision to become reality, the infrastructure – i.e. the grid – must keep pace with digitalisation and the transformation of the energy system.

How the power market will become equally accessible to all with one platform.