Interconnections in central Europe and Switzerland

Despite not being an EU member, Switzerland is fully integrated in UCPTE activities and has an observer status in the European electric bodies that worked out principal suggestions for handling cross-border and transit exchanges, Switzerland is intensively interconnected at the center of the European power system both in terms of tie-line capacity and cross-border trade. The dominating influence of seasonal variations of hydrological circumstances on Swiss generation, 60% of which is hydropower, is the driving force for power exchanges with its neighboring countries, where mainly thermal power stations are installed. This cross-border trade makes use of the complementary properties of the power generation structures and has substantial mutual benefits. This was the reason why Switzerland became the crystallization point for the interconnection of the European power systems in Laufenburg, when up-to-date major coordination functions are performed at the international level for UCPTE and at the national level for the Swiss transmission system operators.