ProKilowatt Competitive Tender (17th Edition)
Funds electricity-efficiency innovation in Switzerland through ProKilowatt competitive support based on savings outcomes.
ProKilowatt is a competitive electricity efficiency programme of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE/BFE), funded through a statutory electricity network surcharge. The 2026 call — the programme's 17th edition — launched on November 3, 2025, and makes CHF 70 million available: up to CHF 40 million for individual projects and up to CHF 30 million for coordinated programmes. Selection is determined by a single competitive criterion: electricity savings measured in kilowatt-hours per Swiss franc of public contribution. Projects delivering the most kWh saved per franc of subsidy receive funding first.
Applicants cover at least 70% of investment costs; ProKilowatt contributes up to 30%, capped at CHF 6 million per project. Two application streams exist: Projects (single-site or specific investments by companies in industry and services) and Programmes (coordinated rollouts by utilities, associations, energy service companies, and NGOs). Within the Projects stream, applications requesting contributions of CHF 2 million or less can be submitted at any point during the 2026 call window; projects requesting CHF 2 million to CHF 6 million proceed through a formal tender round. The programme explicitly targets uneconomical electricity efficiency measures — investments that would not proceed without public subsidy. Research institutions and universities are not eligible; the programme is restricted to industry, services, and programme operators.
Applications and primary documentation are published in German, French, and Italian via the federal administration portal and the ProKilowatt operator site at prokw.ch. Organisations with electricity-intensive industrial or commercial operations in Switzerland, and programme operators capable of coordinating multi-site efficiency rollouts, are the primary target applicants. Strong applications pair a credible engineering basis for the projected savings with a realistic investment plan demonstrating that the measure would not proceed without the subsidy.
Electricity efficiency measures across industry and services (uneconomical measures that would not proceed without subsidy). Two streams: individual Projects and coordinated Programmes.
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