The Axpo Power Switcher is a software platform that allows users to gather insights about possible future developments of the Swiss power sector. In the following the key parameters and assumptions are explained.

Monthly energy balances are the basis for the model instead of power balances. Unlike many other European countries, in Switzerland a potential capacity shortage during individual hours is not critical for the security of supply. This is because the high number of hydraulic storage and pumped storage plants as well as new storage options can compensate for hourly or daily fluctuations in electricity production. The problem, rather, is that in the event of a prolonged lull in other electricity production, large storage reservoirs can run dry. In this case, the energy scarcity can result in a possible interruption of the power supply.

The software charts how much electricity can be generated from which technologies on an annual and monthly basis. This means that for each of the scenarios, the electricity generation capacity for each technology is recorded. Based on the maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by each technology per month, it derives the maximum amount of electricity that can be produced in each month of the year.

A combination of historical data with scenario assumptions is used to calculate the monthly electricity demand. The data with the percentage of the demand typically occurring in each month are also stored. The annual quantities are taken from the respective scenarios.

Switzerland is among the countries in Europe most connected to other countries through power lines. In order to estimate the options for export to Switzerland, the same energy balance is used for all neighboring states as for Switzerland based on European development scenarios (ENTSO-E and ENTSOG TYNDP scenarios from 2022).