Azienda Multiservizi Bellinzona (AMB), the public utilities company in the capital city of Ticino, has just launched a new opt-in tariff scheme for households based on the Smart Pricer system developed by Hive Power, a startup catering to energy utilities and smart grids headquartered in Manno, near Lugano. This is the first time in Switzerland that a distribution system operator offers consumers flexible dynamic tariffs by adopting a demand-side management approach.

Smart meters, smart grids, renewables, peak shaving, dynamic/algorithmic pricing… the transition towards sustainable energy production and consumption is fueling a wide range of innovative solutions to reach, among other things, the objectives set by the Energy Strategy 2050 of the Federal Council. So far, only large industrial consumers could benefit from wholesale energy prices and the flexibility of the open market. Now, it’s time for the consumers to play the game – not by choosing where to buy the electricity they need, but when to buy it.

Households in Switzerland have always had little choice when it comes to consuming electricity: either you’d pay the higher daytime rate, or the lower nighttime rate. Zero flexibility, therefore. As of this year, AMB – the city-owned distribution system operator in Bellinzona – will start offering its customers a new tariff scheme with the intention of optimising its consumption profile by lowering the peaks by creating high and low tariffs that vary on a daily basis, depending on factors such as rainfall, temperatures, own production and consumption. This action – the first of its kind in the country – is part of the energy-environmental policy of the city capital of Ticino that aims at pursuing the objectives of the federal Energy Strategy 2050 and to realise the vision of “Smart-City-Bellinzona”. The peculiarity of this new opt-in tariff model is […]