Electricity communities: measurement decides

A solar roof generates power at midday. The workshop next door is operating then, the block opposite consumes in the evening and the municipality would like more electricity to remain in the neighbourhood. On paper, the pieces fit. In practice, a network boundary, missing meter or vague contract can undo the project. Since 2026, Switzerland's local electricity community has offered a new route alongside the self-consumption group and its virtual form. But the law supplies neither participants, a profitable tariff nor ready-made billing. This article therefore follows the money and the decision: who can pay for a configuration study, which data make it useful, who implements the structure and what event could later justify an ongoing service . It explains the reform without turning a national energy objective into a promise of private revenue.

The Electricity Act broadened the ways in which local renewable generation can be shared: since 2025, a virtual self-consumption group has been able to use certain existing connections, while since 2026 a local electricity community has been able to exchange power over the public grid. It guarantees neither profitability, immediate connection nor a uniform tariff across Switzerland.

The vote of 9 June 2024 approved the federal legislation on a secure electricity supply based on renewable energy. The Swiss Federal Office of Energy published a first package that came into force on 1 January 2025, followed by further rules applying from 1 January 2026. This phased commencement is why a general account of the vote is no longer enough: a practical structure now depends on operational rules, the distribution system operator and site data.

The most relevant change here concerns local sharing. A self-consumption group, referred to in French as an RCP, has long brought nearby users together behind one common grid connection. A virtual RCP extends self-consumption across several connection points where the technical conditions are met. A local electricity community, or LEC, covers a wider area: producers, end users and storage operators can exchange renewable electricity over the public grid.

These options serve different configurations. They are not interchangeable names for one offer. The first useful decision is therefore to choose the mechanism before calculating savings or stating a price.

How to read the table. The choice does not begin with the number of panels. It begins with the relationship between buildings, connection points and the network. The chosen structure then determines contracts, metering, billing and responsibilities.

Text alternative. An RCP suits nearby users behind one common connection. A virtual RCP aggregates certain connections within the self-consumption framework. An LEC uses the public grid inside a defined local area. A study must determine which of the three genuinely fits the site.

Table sources. Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Federal Act on a Secure Electricity Supply from Renewable Energy Sources; Pronovo, Swissolar, Association of Swiss Electricity Companies and SwissEnergy, Information sheet on LEC, RCP and virtual RCP, applicable from January 2026.

The decisive difference lies in the electrical boundary and use of the network. An RCP combines self-consumption behind a common connection; a virtual RCP aggregates permitted connections; and an LEC carries local electricity over the public grid between participants in the same admissible area.

That distinction shifts the risk. In a conventional RCP, the internal organisation becomes the distribution system operator's customer for residual electricity. It must allocate costs, bill participants and comply with the applicable rules. A virtual RCP may simplify an existing project because no additional private line is required, but electrical topology remains decisive. In an LEC, each participant remains a customer of the local supplier for supplementary power, while the community separately governs the price of electricity traded between members.

ElCom distinguishes internal from external relationships. The price agreed between LEC participants belongs to their contractual relationship. Obligations towards the distribution system operator, the treatment of flows and network tariffs sit at another level. One financial table must therefore show two circuits: what the community settles between members and what each participant, or its representative, owes the operator.

A poor choice costs time before activation. If an owner drafts an LEC contract where the buildings could form a simpler virtual RCP, unnecessary responsibilities are added. If an RCP is assumed where the connections cannot be combined, the self-consumption calculation uses a boundary that does not exist. The configuration study is designed to remove these errors early.

An LEC must bring together participants in the same municipality, supply area and network level, use smart meters and meet a minimum generation-capacity threshold. The official information sheet applicable from January 2026 sets that threshold at 5% of the total connection capacity of participating end users.

The boundary cannot be inferred from a property map. Two neighbouring buildings may sit on different network levels. Conversely, participants need not be immediate neighbours if the municipality, supply area and network level match. A topology request to the distribution system operator is therefore a starting document, not a final formality.

Pronovo states that the operator must provide topology and connection information within fifteen working days. It then verifies the conditions, installs missing smart meters within the prescribed period and processes quarter-hour load curves. Those data distinguish electricity generated and consumed simultaneously inside the LEC from residual electricity imported from outside it.

How to read the diagram. The payer is not buying a promise of cheaper electricity. The first purchase reduces uncertainty: can a real group of participants be connected through a measurable, contractual and workable structure?

Text alternative. The project begins with a payer and boundary. It verifies topology, meters and data, then creates the contract. The distribution system operator checks the conditions. Sufficient compliance allows activation; a gap requires the structure to change or stop.

Diagram sources. Pronovo, Swissolar, Association of Swiss Electricity Companies and SwissEnergy, Information sheet on LEC, RCP and virtual RCP; ElCom, frequently asked questions on basic supply and local electricity communities.

Before discussing savings, the project needs connection points, generation capacity, contracted capacities, load curves, applicable tariffs, meter status, intended participants and allocation rules. Without them, annual generation cannot show how much value is genuinely shared.

An annual total combines hours that never coincide. Ten thousand kilowatt-hours generated in summer do not automatically offset ten thousand consumed on winter evenings. For an LEC, the distribution system operator calculates internal flows from load curves at quarter-hour intervals. Local use therefore depends on simultaneous injection and withdrawal, not simply the annual balance.

Price components must also be separated. Electricity traded between participants has an internal price set by contract. Network use for internal flows receives the LEC treatment that the operator must disclose transparently. Supplementary electricity continues to be billed by the local supplier, including energy, network, metering, levy and surcharge components. From the 2026 tariff year, ElCom notes that metering is shown separately from the network-use tariff.

The configuration must also examine existing support schemes. Pronovo indicates that a subsidised installation can in principle participate, but that certain installations under the feed-in remuneration system are excluded or lose their premium during participation. An adviser must never present the LEC as a benefit that can simply be added to every existing form of support.

The first payer may be an owner with several buildings, a municipality, cooperative, appointed property manager or group of businesses. It buys a bounded configuration study: validate the boundary, compare structures, inventory missing data, set initial economic assumptions and decide whether to proceed, reconfigure or stop.

This deliverable must be billable without waiting for the community to activate. Its value lies not in the size of the report, but in the decision it enables. A good report says which structure appears applicable, which assumptions remain weak, who should request information from the operator, which contractual responsibilities arise and what next expenditure would be justified.

The study is not yet a detailed engineering engagement. It replaces neither the operator's response, legal drafting of the contract nor billing configuration. It must nevertheless be concrete enough to avoid an identical second study. Its commercial scope may include a kick-off workshop, collection of a minimum dataset, an LEC/RCP/virtual RCP comparison, a flow scenario and a decision note.

The study's price, delivery cost and margin must be agreed with the partner. The economic rule is simple: a paid study is revenue; expert time, data and tools are costs; the difference contributes to margin. A reduction in the client's electricity bill is neither the provider's turnover nor its margin.

How to read the transaction map. The first revenue belongs to an identifiable study. Implementation exists only after a favourable decision. Continuity does not follow from the law; it depends on a useful service being ordered and delivered properly.

Text alternative. A local group pays for a study, which leads to one of three decisions: proceed, change the structure or stop. Only proceeding opens technical and contractual work, followed by implementation. Operation may recur when real tasks justify it.

Connection and metering turn the study into implementation once the operator confirms the topology, participants have smart meters, load curves can be processed and the contract assigns price, representation and billing. No allocation software can correct an inadmissible network boundary.

The distribution system operator is central. Pronovo's information sheet says that it verifies requirements, installs missing smart meters within the applicable deadlines, activates the community, calculates internal and residual electricity, shows the network reduction on bills and provides the information needed for guarantees of origin. The LEC representative must therefore be able to work with the operator before and during operation.

The community retains its own internal decisions: sales price between participants, allocation of certain costs, the representative's role, joining and leaving, unpaid bills, data responsibilities and commitment periods. ElCom notes that disputes about the internal price generally belong to the relationship between participants, while its powers principally concern external relationships governed by electricity law.

A delivery partner must know where its role ends. An engineering consultancy can model flows. A lawyer can secure the agreements. A billing provider can automate statements. The distribution system operator retains its statutory powers. The commercial offer becomes credible when these interfaces are named before signature, with an owner and expected evidence for each.

Potential describes projects that might fit the structure; revenue exists only when a new client orders and pays for a service; margin subtracts delivery costs from that revenue; and proof links each figure to a contract, invoice, receipt and actual time used. The four levels must never be added together.

How to read the chart. Legislation and a pool of projects provide a signal. Evidence strengthens when the boundary is qualified, a study is signed, payment is received and full costs finally permit margin to be calculated. The progression predicts no conversion rate.

Text alternative. A public signal is the weakest level. A qualified project adds evidence. Signature creates contractual revenue, payment confirms it and comparison with costs establishes margin. No monetary values are published because partner data have not been validated.

The law creates regulatory potential through mechanisms and conditions. Operator information creates technical potential by revealing which sites could form a structure. Participants' willingness and budget create commercial potential. Only a paid order becomes turnover for the provider.

This separation also protects acquisition decisions. A large solar audience is not a customer pool. A file needs, at minimum, a new payer, several identifiable connection points or buildings, an active configuration question, accessible data and a partner capable of delivery. National generation targets for 2035 and 2050 remain energy-policy context; they cannot be divided into market shares to calculate revenue.

The most useful signals are an underused solar installation, several buildings in one municipality, a new large roof, a developing district, a producer seeking local demand or businesses with complementary consumption profiles. A signal becomes a prospect only after the payer, boundary and timetable have been checked.

Search captures organisations already asking about LECs, virtual RCPs, local sales or meters. Educational content can explain the structural differences and attract better-prepared projects. Targeted outreach starts instead from observable configurations: a local property portfolio, a municipality owning several sites, an energy cooperative, a business park or a producer with low self-consumption.

Phone and email then qualify rather than announce savings. Three questions can stop a poor file quickly: who would pay for the study, which sites and participants are involved, and what metering data already exist? Voice messages, professional networks, local events and referrers can open the conversation, but all should lead to the same bounded decision.

Solar installers, property managers, engineering consultancies, municipalities, energy suppliers and lawyers can act as referrers, but their interests differ. The installer sees generation; the property manager knows participants; the operator holds topology; the lawyer secures internal relationships. A good multi-channel strategy assigns each channel the question it can genuinely advance.

The strategy should begin with one territory and payer type, offer a configuration study with stable scope and compare search, direct outreach, referrers and events by file quality. The best channel produces paid studies that can be delivered at a healthy margin—not the most forms.

How to read the journey. The strategy protects scarce expertise. It filters before the study, measures after payment and limits volume when delivery capacity becomes the main risk. The pivot may concern territory, payer, structure or price; it never alters the legal conditions.

Text alternative. A signal is qualified. Cases outside the criteria are declined or referred. Others may buy a study. The decision leads to implementation or a revised configuration. Channels are strengthened only after payment, cost and capacity have been measured.

Beyond the midpoint, compare this with preparing a bid for a photovoltaic auction: one qualifies a community and its flows; the other qualifies an application and capacity. The Energy and solar market page retains dynamic access to other validated analyses in the vertical.

An initial study can become ongoing work when repeated tasks have an owner, frequency and value: adding or removing participants, monitoring data, correcting billing, tracking guarantees of origin, reviewing the internal price or adapting the structure to a new installation. A subscription without such events is not defensible continuity.

Pronovo describes obligations that continue after creation: processing load curves, calculating flows, handling changes, communicating data and tracking guarantees of origin. Some belong to the distribution system operator. Others may justify a service from the representative or its providers. The contract must separate those roles to avoid charging twice for the same function or promising work that only the operator can perform.

Continuity may take the form of periodic administration, support for participant changes, statement checks, contract updates, analysis of new capacity or a storage review. Each must correspond to real work. Revenue retention then depends on service quality, participant trust and project development—not merely on the LEC's legal existence.

Before acquisition is tested, the business partner must therefore provide its service areas, internal and external capabilities, study price, average delivery time, essential data, refusal conditions, monthly capacity, insured responsibilities and evidence of at least one anonymisable comparable transaction. Until price, full cost, margin and account pool have been validated, this article remains on hold and must not become a public promise.

This remains analysis because it establishes a mechanism and plausible first purchase without the commercial evidence needed to launch a campaign: a verified partner transaction, price, margin, capacity, qualified account pool and collection period. It explains how to decide; it guarantees neither an LEC, savings nor revenue within thirty days.

The authoritative sources are the Swiss Federal Office of Energy for the legislation and commencement; ElCom for tariffs, responsibilities and flexibility; and Pronovo, Swissolar, the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies and SwissEnergy for operational conditions governing LECs, RCPs and virtual RCPs. Their publications describe law and delivery. They do not publish a provider's margin or a getfishnet campaign conversion rate.

The economic verdict therefore remains suspended. Partner evidence can change it: an anonymised contract, first invoice, payment, delivery time, expert cost, gross margin, reason for purchase and available capacity. Without that set, the right choice is to preserve the analysis and reject attractive figures that measure nothing.

A similar strategy fits when a genuine acquisition problem can be linked to a payer, simple first purchase, accessible evidence and delivery capacity. The free getfishnet eligibility test considers these elements, your current friction points and potential fit before any tailored strategy is proposed.

You do not need to work in energy. The same discipline applies when a reform, new procedure or economic shift creates a decision that future clients struggle to understand. We then identify the buying moment, relevant accounts, channels that can reach them and conditions that protect your margin.