Dynamic Feed-in Tariffs from 2027: What’s Really Changing for Your Solar Installation

Starting January 1, 2027, the compensation for solar electricity fed into Switzerland’s grid will be calculated every 15 minutes, based on the day-ahead spot market prices. This is a structural shift—but far less dramatic than some reports suggest, as the law includes safety nets for small installations.

What’s Changing in Practice

Today (since January 1, 2026), compensation is based on a quarterly reference market price, calculated by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE)—a system that replaced the previous logic of avoided costs.

From 2027, the granularity shifts to every 15 minutes. In practice:

• Midday in summer: Peak production, grid saturation, low (or even negative) prices
• Morning, evening, winter: Higher demand, higher prices than today

In short, the value of your fed-in kWh will now depend on when you inject it—not a smoothed average.

No, You Won’t Pay to Feed In

This is the point most articles overlook—and it’s critical.

Switzerland’s Energy Act (Art. 15 EnG) guarantees a minimum feed-in tariff:

How it works: While billing happens every 15 minutes, the guarantee applies to the quarterly average. If this average falls below the floor, the grid operator pays a minimum compensation premium to cover the gap.

Direct consequence for residential installations under 30 kW: Your quarterly earnings cannot turn negative, even if some 15-minute intervals are negative. The risk of “paying to feed in” applies only to installations over 150 kW and those selling directly to the market—not to the average household.

For perspective: Negative prices account for roughly 3.5% of annual hours, mostly on sunny weekends in spring and summer.

The Real Challenge Isn’t Negative Prices

It’s elsewhere—and structural: A self-consumed kWh is worth 3–5 times more than a fed-in kWh.

• Feed-in compensation: ~6–10 ct/kWh
• Residential drawdown tariff: ~30 ct/kWh

This gap exists today, will persist in 2027, and isn’t tied to legislative changes. Every kWh you consume on-site instead of feeding in is the most valuable kWh from your installation. The shift to dynamic pricing simply adds a second layer of optimization: when to feed in the remaining surplus.

Optimizing: Smart Control and Storage

A smart energy management system leverages two key strategies:

1. Shift flexible loads to production hours—laundry, dishwashers, EV charging, water heaters
2. Predict based on weather forecasts and household habits for heating, cooling, and heat pumps
3. Store excess in batteries during low-price periods, release it in the evening
4. Balance feed-in based on 15-minute price signals

Two Technical Prerequisites to Know

The 2027 model requires infrastructure:

• A smart meter capable of quarter-hourly measurements—a requirement for the new system
• Access to day-ahead prices. Swissolar explicitly calls for open APIs to automate price retrieval. Without usable data, automated control isn’t possible.

At casasmooth, the architecture is local and modular: control logic runs on-site, integrates with existing meters and inverters, and remains functional without relying on third-party cloud services. Notably, casasmooth’s software layer can enable control of non-certified existing equipment—without replacement.

Watch for: Transition Periods and Alternative Models

Two key nuances:

• Not all grid operators will switch simultaneously. A transitional period extends into early 2028.
• Operators may offer alternative models, such as flat-rate tariffs regardless of feed-in timing, depending on cantonal or municipal decisions. You’re free to accept or decline such offers. Check your local grid operator’s proposal before investing in advanced control.

Local Energy Communities (LECs), in Brief

Since January 1, 2026, Switzerland’s law has allowed local energy communities. In short:

• The concept: Neighboring buildings in the same district pool production and consumption. Excess from one roof serves neighbors instead of the grid.
• Difference from a RCP: A Regroupement de Consommation Propre (RCP) limits pooling to a single building or contiguous complex behind one connection point. An LEC spans multiple buildings in the same municipality, using the local distribution grid.
• Who can participate: Producers, consumers, and storage units connected at the same grid level within the defined area.
• Economic benefit: Electricity traded within the community is valued well above feed-in tariffs and benefits from reduced grid usage costs.
• Prerequisite: Smart meters, quarter-hourly billing, and real-time logic to arbitrate between self-consumption, local exchange, and grid feed-in.

This complements dynamic pricing: The finer the local coordination, the less exposure to price dips.

Energy Is Just One Piece—casasmooth Manages the Whole Home

A critical point often lost in pricing debates: Energy optimization only matters if the system also runs the home. A controller that ignores occupancy, daylight, or lifestyle scenarios just adds discomfort.

casasmooth is a full home orchestration platform, built on Home Assistant, where energy management is one module among many:

• Lighting: Motion and daylight-based control, room-specific and time-of-day scenarios
• Heating & Cooling: Per-room regulation based on actual occupancy—no heating when empty
• Security & Presence: Detection, alerts, away-mode simulations, access control
• Shades & Blinds: Coordination with sunlight and thermal needs
• EV Charging: Load management with power constraints
• Daily Comfort: Media, robot vacuums, irrigation, contextual scenes
• Interoperability: Native Matter integration, support for existing systems (KNX, Loxone, Zigbee, Modbus…) without ripping out infrastructure
• Supervision: Equipment inventory, per-outlet metering, backups, watchdog, controlled updates

Two architectural principles guide the design:

Local-first. One casasmooth per home, managing that home. Logic runs on-site, not in a third-party cloud. If your internet drops, your home keeps running.

Data sovereignty. Your consumption, presence, and usage data stay yours. This is a design choice, not a paid feature.

Energy benefits directly from this integration: The system knows who’s home, which rooms are occupied, which loads can be deferred—and which can’t. This is what separates true control from a basic timer.

The Next Step: A Grid That Talks to Its Participants

Dynamic pricing is just the first step. The deeper logic is a grid that no longer just bills after the fact, but exchanges signals with connected installations—to smooth peaks, absorb surpluses, and avoid costly grid reinforcements. Buildings shift from passive consumers to active participants.

This evolution requires equipment capable of receiving signals and responding intelligently—without compromising occupant comfort. casasmooth is built for this: fine-grained sensing, occupancy awareness, prioritized deferrable loads, and local control. When your grid operator offers this kind of coordination, your installation will be ready—without additional work.

In Summary

The shift to dynamic pricing isn’t a catastrophe or revolution—just another reason to seriously manage your consumption. Installations with smart controls will glide through the transition effortlessly; others may discover their quarterly bills with less enthusiasm.

With casasmooth and the support of teleia for professional installation and integration in Switzerland, you retain full control of your energy—locally.

Sources

• AES — Dynamic Compensation for Solar Electricity from 2027
• Swissolar — A New Compensation Model Creates Market Incentives
• Swissolar — What’s New in 2026?
• AES — Changes to Feed-in Obligations and Compensation