Security of Supply in the Swiss and the EU Electricity Market

Avenir Suisse and the Center for Security Studies (CSS), supported by the Energy Science Center (ESC), organized an event on “Security of Supply in the Swiss and the EU Electricity Market – Ownership Structures, Political Responsibility, and Cross Border Cooperation”.

Ensuring security of supply is one of the central tasks of energy policy. In particular, in an ever more closely integrated European electricity market, close coordination between network operators, power companies, and politics is vital. But what exactly is the nature of this cooperation and the responsibilities that it entails? What happens if companies find themselves in financial difficulties? Which ownership structures are necessary, which are desirable? Finally, how important is cooperation between Switzerland and the EU? These questions were raised at the event by expert speakers including Dr. Jörg Spicker, Head of Market at Swissgrid, and Barbie Kornelia Haller, head of the section on “Economic Key Issues of Energy Regulation” at the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) in Germany. The two speakers were joined in the debate by Dr. Patrick Dümmler, Senior Fellow at Avenir Suisse, and Dr. Severin Fischer, Senior Researcher at the CSS, and answered questions raised by the audience.