The Role of Gas Infrastructure in the Future Energy System

The energy market in Europe and Switzerland will change dramatically in the future. Energy and climate policy decisions and technological developments are leading to an increase in fluctuating renewable energy production. More flexibility in the power grid and storage options are required. This development raises the following questions:

  • What framework conditions are needed to create incentives for investments in coupled energy networks (sector coupling of electricity, gas, heat)?
  • What structures can we use to make the transition towards a new energy system as cost-efficient and climate-friendly as possible?
  • What are cost-effective and low-carbon alternatives to current industrial processes?

With our building park model, we determine the spatial and temporal demand for electricity and heat in the Zug region in the WWZ supply area. From this, ETH Zurich derives the future network development, models and evaluates it in a technical-economic manner.

The results serve as a basis for decision-making in the evaluation of sector couplings and in the overall optimisation of the energy system.

Project infos

  • Project duration2017 to 2020

  • Contact persons at TEP EnergyUlrich Reiter, Martin Jakob

  • PrincipalsSFOE, Energy - Economy - Society (EEC) research programme, LSG

  • Project partnersETH Zurich (lead; Research Centre for Energy Networks), TEP Energy, WWZ, and VSG

  • Final report(PDF)

Reference projects

Energy Policy Simulator

TEP Energy is supporting the San Francisco based think tank Energy Innovation in the expansion of its Energy Policy Simulator (EPS).

Future of Gas Study

TEP analysed the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of buildings of residential and service sector in EU27 countries to model different pathways of fossil fuel substitution.

Ex-post analysis of energy demand 2021

Together with Prognos and Infras, TEP carries out the ex-post analysis of the energy demand of 2021 in Switzerland. TEP Energy is responsible for the services and agriculture sectors.

MEDIUS

MEDIUS bridges the gap between green finance and green projects to decarbonize buildings at scale.

Country-specific Market Reports for Buildings

Building Market Briefs (BMB) is a Climate KIC initiative within the flagship Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA) that aims to gather and promote knowledge about the buildings' and construction sector to promote low carbon investment and scaling.

Heating Initiative Switzerland

On behalf of the Swiss Heating Initiative (WIS), the decarbonization of the heating sector will be examined by 2050. Spatial potential analyzes and the Swiss building stock model (GPM) are used.

CoolCity

Assessment of the potential for lake water use for heating and cooling in the city of Zurich

Energy-Saving Contracting

Increasing energy efficiency is one of the central pillars of Swiss energy policy and energy-saving contracting contributes to this goal.