201 Global News Post 3

The article: “Strompreise steigen nächstes Jahr deutlich” is a Swiss article that when translated to English states “Electricity Prices Will Rise Significantly Next Year.” This article was published in a popular Swiss newspaper called Basler Zeitung, a newspaper that focuses almost exclusively on Swiss news. The article discusses how the cost of electricity will double for the average Swiss household in 2024 due to utilizing the winter energy reserves. On top of the cost to expend the winter reserves, residents of Switzerland will also have to pay an additional amount for both network services and to make up for low fees in 2023. The article begins by detailing how the transmission grid operator, Swissgrid, will have to pass on the additional costs of the energy reserves to their customers, increasing the average household bill from 70 to 154 francs. This is a very significant increase, and it is because of the high procurement costs of obtaining the federal government’s energy reserves. The article then goes on to discuss how the average household cost of network services will rise from 70 to 92 francs. It is believed that these cost increases can also be attributed to low fees in 2023. The article goes on to describe the reason for these low fees as an estimation error occurring back in 2022. Swissgrid had overestimated the electricity fees for 2023 and to pay for them, they had increased the average household bill by 20 francs. When the electricity usage around Switzerland did not reach their expectations, Swissgrid was obligated to compensate their customers, forcing them to increase their prices for 2024 to make up for this loss. The article uses a variety of statistical evidence to describe these fluctuating energy costs, and it does a good job of using these statistics to show how sharp the increase in energy costs will be for Swiss residents come 2024.

Botte, Jean-Chrstophe. (2022). [Photograph of Electrical Towers]. Keystone.  https://www.lenouvelliste.ch/valais/pourquoi-les-tarifs-de-lelectricite-ne-seront-pas-les-memes-pour-tous-les-valaisans-en-decembre-1248291

Link to article: https://www.bazonline.ch/strompreise-steigen-dieses-jahr-deutlich-300074009448