Bergler guides · Electricity market · May 2026
Swiss electricity market 2026 — day-ahead, spot prices, mechanics
Since 2026 the day-ahead market has been the price backbone of the Swiss electricity sector. Here you find live spot prices updated hourly, an explanatory three-scenario model on negative spot prices, the legal classification and an outlook on the planned switch from quarterly average to hourly spot prices from 1.7.2026. Legal references remain German originals.
Live day-ahead prices (Switzerland)
The following prices come directly from the ENTSO-E day-ahead auction for the Swiss market area. The auction is held the day before (until 12:00 D-1); all 24 hours of the next day are traded. Click an hour to open the market review with drill-down across day, week, month and year.
Who carries the cost? — three scenarios
What happens when market price falls below the statutory minimum compensation — or goes negative? The following three-scenario visualisation shows the money flows between producer, local utility and market.
What happens during negative spot prices?
Who carries the difference when market prices fall below the statutory minimum — or go negative? Click through the three scenarios.
The statutory minimum applies because the market price is lower. The utility carries the 3 Rp./kWh delta, to the extent it cannot be recovered via cost-of-procurement in the universal supply tariff (Art. 4 para. 3 StromVV).
With hourly spot pricing from 1 July 2026
With the planned switch to hourly spot prices from 1 July 2026 the price signal becomes direct: negative market prices are passed straight to the producer (for systems above 150 kWp without minimum compensation anyway; for smaller systems balanced via a quarterly premium). All actors thus have an incentive to feed electricity in when it is actually needed — via self-consumption, storage, or local electricity communities (LEG).
Legal classification of negative spot prices
Frequently asked questions about the electricity market
What is the day-ahead market?
An auction on the European EPEX SPOT power exchange in which electricity is traded for the 24 hours of the following day. The auction closes at 12:00 CET the day before — after that the price for every hour of the next day is fixed. In Switzerland this price has been the central market reference since 2009; since the omnibus law on 1.1.2026 it is also the statutory compensation basis (Art. 15 EnFV).
Source: Art. 15 EnFV (SR 730.03), EPEX SPOT
How does day-ahead differ from the intraday market?
Day-ahead is the main market: one closed auction per day, one price per hour, set the previous evening. Intraday runs continuously during the delivery day and fine-tunes forecast deviations — wind and solar forecasts become more accurate, plant outages are balanced. Only the day-ahead price counts for statutory feed-in compensation in Switzerland.
Source: Art. 15 EnFV; ENTSO-E Transparency Platform
What is the reference market price and how is it calculated?
The reference market price is the volume-weighted average of day-ahead prices in the Swiss market area, weighted by actual quarter-hourly feed-in and calculated separately for PV, hydro, wind and biomass. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BFE) publishes it quarterly — in practice by the 10th working day after the quarter ends.
Source: Art. 15 EnFV (SR 730.03), BFE
Why do spot prices sometimes go negative?
When supply exceeds demand while conventional plants cannot be ramped down further (minimum load, lead times), negative bids appear. Producers then effectively pay for the right to feed in — typically on sunny summer midday hours with high wind and hydro generation in surrounding countries. Negative hours have been recurring in the Swiss market area since 2020 and are increasing with PV growth.
Source: ENTSO-E Transparency Platform, BFE
What changes on 1 July 2026 regarding the spot market price?
Planned: switch of feed-in compensation from the quarterly-averaged reference market price to the hourly day-ahead spot price at the moment of feed-in. Electricity is then valued at the same hourly market price in both directions. The minimum compensation for systems <150 kW is retained and newly settled as a quarterly premium. A transition rule applies until 31.12.2027 for grid operators without smart-metering systems.
Source: UVEK consultation 16.9.2025 (consultation closed 22.12.2025), entry into force subject to results
Am I directly exposed to negative prices as an operator?
It depends on system size and promotion track. Systems up to 150 kWp are protected by the statutory minimum compensation (Art. 12 EnV). Systems above 150 kWp with a GMP auction remain protected by the auctioned compensation rate. Systems above 150 kWp without GMP and direct marketers are exposed to the hourly spot price directly. For individual agreements with the grid operator we recommend a contractual floor of 0 Rp./kWh.
Source: Art. 12 EnV, Art. 15 EnG; Bergler Energie advisory practice
Residential (single/two-family)
Residential guide
Compensation calculator, minimum-compensation schema, storage simulator and the four local marketing models.
Landlords, administrators, condos
Apartment buildings & ZEV
Pass electricity to tenants: ZEV, vZEV, LEG, Praxismodell — plus tenant wallboxes and heating replacement.
SMEs, workshops, halls (self-consumption)
Commercial & industrial
Cut electricity costs through self-consumption, peak-shaving storage, employee wallboxes and e-fleets incl. e-trucks.
Pure full-feed-in projects
Investors & full feed-in
HEIV, sliding market premium (GMP), direct marketing and the comparison calculator with three scenarios.
Authoritative sources
Only official state sources. The decisive texts are the laws and ordinances currently in force on fedlex.admin.ch. Bergler Energie AG accepts no liability for completeness or currency.
Legal basis
- Federal Energy Act (EnG, SR 730.0), Art. 15 (take-off and compensation obligation)
- Energy Ordinance (EnV, SR 730.01), Art. 12 paras. 1 and 1bis (minimum compensation, effective 1.1.2026)
- Energy Promotion Ordinance (EnFV, SR 730.03), Art. 15 (reference market price)
- Electricity Supply Ordinance (StromVV, SR 734.71), Art. 4 para. 3 (cost-of-procurement recovery)
- UVEK consultation 16.9.2025 on revision of energy ordinances (consultation closed 22.12.2025), planned entry into force 1.7.2026 (hourly spot price), transition rule until 31.12.2027
- ElCom newsletter 12/2025 (communications on compensation and Praxismodell)
Information as of: May 2026. This information does not replace individual technical or legal advice.
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