What an electricity bill contains, municipality by municipality

Three lines behind a single price

The tariff displayed for a household covers several distinct elements. ElCom, the federal regulator, publishes for each municipality the tariff for the H4 profile, that of a household consuming 4’500 kWh a year. It also publishes the breakdown: the price of energy, grid remuneration, then levies and the federal surcharge. The values used here are those of the 2026 tariff year.

Across the 2’108 municipalities covered, the median price of energy stands at 12.11 ct./kWh. The median, the middle value, splits the municipalities into two halves of equal size. Median grid remuneration reaches 11.03 ct./kWh, a level very close to the first.

• The price of energy: what the electricity itself costs, 12.11 ct./kWh for the median municipality.
• Grid remuneration: transport and distribution up to the meter, 11.03 ct./kWh for the median municipality.
• Levies and the federal surcharge: the remainder of the tariff, whose median gap with the sum of the first two components reaches 4.69 ct./kWh.

The grid accounts for nearly four tenths of the tariff

The median municipal grid share comes to 39.7 % of the total tariff. This component is not a matter of choice: the grid operator is determined by where a household lives, and cannot be changed. The grid share is calculated municipality by municipality, then the median is taken across these 2’108 values.

Differences between municipalities remain marked. Grid remuneration reaches 20.68 ct./kWh in Bischofszell (TG), the highest value in the survey, against 11.03 ct./kWh for the median municipality. In this Thurgau municipality of 6’417 residents, the grid accounts for half of a total tariff of 41.37 ct./kWh, or 50.0 %.

The breakdown in the six largest cities

None of the six largest cities falls below a 34 % grid share. Zurich shows the highest share in the group, 43.3 %, with 7.88 ct./kWh of energy and 10.73 ct./kWh of grid, for a total tariff of 24.76 ct./kWh. Basel comes last at 34.3 %, with 10.89 and 11.41 ct./kWh.

In this group, the price of energy varies more than that of the grid. It ranges from 7.88 ct./kWh in Zurich to 14.17 ct./kWh in Winterthur, two municipalities in the same canton. The grid stays between 9.88 ct./kWh in Geneva and 13.03 ct./kWh in Bern. Total tariffs range from 24.76 ct./kWh in Zurich to 33.26 ct./kWh in Bern.

Geneva shows a grid share of 39.7 %, identical to the median of the 2’108 municipalities, with 9.67 ct./kWh of energy and 9.88 ct./kWh of grid for a total tariff of 24.88 ct./kWh. Lausanne follows at 39.1 %, with a total of 30.50 ct./kWh, and Winterthur at 36.6 %, for 30.48 ct./kWh.

Where the grid share is highest

Göschenen (UR), 458 residents, records the highest grid share in the survey, 60.6 %. The price of energy there falls to 0.65 ct./kWh, the lowest value among the 2’108 municipalities, while the grid reaches 9.93 ct./kWh. The total tariff there stays low, at 16.38 ct./kWh.

Next come Muotathal (SZ) with 58.9 % and Wolfhalden (AR) with 57.6 %. In these two municipalities, the total tariff exceeds 25 ct./kWh: 25.64 ct./kWh in Muotathal, 28.96 ct./kWh in Wolfhalden. Gottlieben (TG) shows 56.9 % and Val Müstair (GR) 56.1 %, for total tariffs of 32.06 and 28.33 ct./kWh.

Differences from one end of the country to the other

The lowest total tariff goes to Zwischbergen (VS), 9.64 ct./kWh in a municipality of 71 residents, and the highest to Kestenholz (SO), 43.61 ct./kWh. In Kestenholz, energy alone stands at 25.50 ct./kWh, the highest value in the survey, and the grid accounts for 27.5 % of the total.

At the other extreme, nine municipalities post grid remuneration below 2 ct./kWh. The five lowest grid shares in the survey are all in Graubünden: Zillis-Reischen, Ferrera, Andeer, Avers and Thusis, each at 0.46 ct./kWh of grid. This is the lowest grid share, not the lowest tariff: the total there ranges from 11.47 ct./kWh in Zillis-Reischen to 16.23 ct./kWh in Thusis. These values, shared by a very small number of municipalities, should not be read as a trend.

Method: the tariffs cited are those of the H4 profile (a household using 4’500 kWh a year) for the 2026 tariff year, published by ElCom, municipality by municipality. The total is not limited to energy and the grid: it also includes levies and the federal surcharge. That is why the sum of the two components remains below the tariff announced, the median gap reaching 4.69 ct./kWh. The grid share is calculated for each municipality, then the median is taken across the 2’108 municipalities covered; it therefore does not correspond to the ratio between the two medians. The nine municipalities whose grid remuneration is below 2 ct./kWh remain isolated cases.

Civiora’s municipal profiles carry this breakdown, energy, grid and total, for each of the 2’108 municipalities covered by the survey, with the associated 2026 tariff year.