(MENAFN- Swissinfo) In 2023, 1.7% less electricity was consumed than in the previous year, apparently due to more efficient appliances.
This content was published on April 18, 2024 - 10:26 3 minutes Keystone-SDA
According to the Federal Office of Energy (FOE), electricity production also rose by 13.5% to hit a new record.
In 2023, 72.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity were produced in Switzerland, a new record, compared to 63.5 billion kWh in 2022, the FOE said on Thursday. After deducting storage pump consumption, net generation in 2023 was 66.7 billion kWh.
According to a press release, national electricity consumption was 60.3 billion kWh last year – 56.1 billion kWh after deducting distribution and transmission losses – which was 1.7% or around one billion kWh down on the previous year. According to the FOE, this is roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of 200,000 households.
+ Read more: Swiss solutions for storing the energy of tomorrow
More electricity exported than imported
In 2023, Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.7% and the population by 1.26%, according to the FOE. Heating degree days also increased by 1.8% compared to the previous year. The fact that electricity consumption nevertheless fell was due to more energy-efficient electronic devices and more efficient industry processes, disrupting growth in consumption, the FOE's Michael Kost told Swiss public radio, SRF.
According to FOE, Switzerland also exported more electricity than it imported last year, resulting in an export surplus of 6.4 billion kWh, as imports of 27.5 billion kWh were offset by exports of 33.9 billion kWh. Switzerland therefore achieved a positive foreign trade balance of CHF976 million ($1.1 billion), compared to CHF71 million in 2022.
Increase in hydropower output
Hydropower plants accounted for 56.6% of electricity generation, nuclear for 32.4% and thermal and renewable for 11%, the SFOE said.
Hydropower output increased by almost 22% in 2023 compared to the previous year, reaching 40.8 billion kWh – the second-highest result ever after record year 2001. Output at Switzerland's four nuclear power plants, meanwhile, increased by 1% to 23.3 billion kWh.
Translated from German by DeepL/kp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look
here ,
and if you have feedback on this news story please write to
... .
External Content Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Daily news
Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.
Daily
Email
The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.
I consent to the use of my data for the SWI swissinfo newsletter.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ... .
MENAFN18042024000210011054ID1108112169
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.