Standard energy storage system in Zurich Switzerland

One important pillar of this strategy is the further development of electricity storage capacity in Switzerland. In the next years, three large-scale pumped hydro storage power plants will be connected to the grid. The first, the Limmern pumped storage plant (1 GW), should become operational in 2016.

Despite the government's objectives defined in the Energy Strategy 2050, there is currently no direct support via subsidy for pumped storage operators in Switzerland.

In 2012, the battery was connected to the grid and it is still the most powerful of its kind in the Swiss distribution network. It consists of 10,368 battery cells, similar to the ones used in electric cars. In 2015, the EWZ, the electric power company of the city of Zurich, installed a lithium-ion battery with a capacity 719 kWh.

More recently, ABB together with the Zurich power company EKZ has installed a 1 MW power battery storage solution with a capacity of 250 kWh in Dietikon, located in the canton of Zurich. In 2012, the battery was connected to the grid and it is still the most powerful of its kind in the Swiss distribution network.

In the past, a total of 14, mostly small sized pumped hydro storage plants, were built, the last of which was commissioned in 1990. However, the combined capacity of these plants only amounts to 1380 MW contributing to approximately 4.4% of the total electricity produced in Switzerland.

Further, the introduction of a cost-covering fee for feed-in to the electricity grid, in order to subsidise new renewable energy sources in Switzerland, disadvantaged traditional hydro electricity producers. As a result, high prices during peak load times dropped, which substantially lowered the revenue stream of pumped storage plants.