All of us can help out, right now, and show our solidarity with others. Because the best kilowatt hour is the one that isn’t needed and doesn’t have to be produced in the first place. Some things you can do:
Here are plenty more tips and tricks for saving electricity – and money!
In a city with over 430,000 residents, and a country with a population of 8.5 million, we can save a huge amount of electricity with no loss of comfort at all. You can find more tips in our online magazine, powernewz.ch:
ewz in-home energy audits have been helping private individuals with free tips and tricks on efficient use of energy for over thirty years – by telephone or even virtually. You won’t just be saving electricity, but cash as well! The same goes for businesses, who can take advantage of our free initial audit.
In contrast to an electricity outage (or blackout), under an electricity shortage there is still electricity available, but at reduced volumes. An electricity shortage arises when the demand for electrical energy exceeds the available supply due to low production, transmission or import capacities over several days, weeks or months.
The public is being called on to reduce electricity consumption on a voluntary basis, but if that isn’t enough, the federal authorities will convene the ‘Organisation for Power Supply in Extraordinary Situations’ (OSTRAL) (in German). In the event of an electricity shortage, the authorities will introduce a range of measures by order.
Bans and consumption restrictions
Rationing
Rolling outages: a last resort
The goal is clear: with solidarity and a common will we have to save enough electricity that we can avoid outages at all costs. Otherwise, the following measures may be mandated as a last resort:
Where technically feasible, this will not affect operations of systemic relevance, such as hospitals, water supply facilities, telecommunications and waste management.