Uploaded on 2015-06-04 by perrauds

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14334045098588114.jpg Situated at an altitude of 568m, the "Centrale des Clées" is one of the hydrolic production factories of my employer, Romande Energie. It is composed of 3 Francis turbines of 9.2 MW, for a total power of 27.5 MW. The water falls from 174 m. The average annual production is around 100.8 GWh. It is linked to the high voltage network (125 KV) Although not as cheap as the electricity bought in the rest of Europe and imported in Switzerland, hydrolic electricity (approx. 60% of our total production) allows Switzerland to 1. keep an environmental-friendly production, preserving our country while leveraging our natural resources (mountains, water), and 2. keep a certain level of autonomy in order to avoid the risk of dependency to other countries (yet only 25% is producted internally). Transportation is one of the most electricity-consuming industry (35%). We however have a great railway company (CFF), producing its own electricity, and encouraging clean mobility. Overall, Switzerland is very focused towards energy-saving initiatives, and clean energies. New buildings should now be 20% autosufficient in electricity (mostly thanks to solar panels or heat pumps). Therefore, national and regional electricity grids are becoming smarter, and evolving at a local level (city or even house) towards micro-grids.