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casasmooth is a member of SmartGridready

8 min read

You often read 'dynamic tariffs' and 'SmartGridready' in the same sentence, as if they were a single innovation. There are actually three: the price you pay, the price you are paid, and the language in which these prices reach your devices. Here's who decides what, when, and what casasmooth is already doing.

Illustration of dynamic tariffs and SmartGridready in a smart home

Dynamic Tariffs and SmartGridready: Three Topics, One Home

You often read 'dynamic tariffs' and 'SmartGridready' in the same sentence, as if they were a single innovation. There are actually three: the price you pay, the price you are paid, and the language in which these prices reach your devices. Here's who decides what, when, and what casasmooth is already doing.

Three topics intersect when discussing electricity and smart homes. They are related, but they depend on different decision-makers, timelines, and affect you differently.

  • The price you pay. This is the purchase tariff, the cost of electricity you draw from the grid. It can become dynamic, meaning it varies throughout the day: since 2026, this has been possible for the 'network usage' portion of your bill. Your distributor decides this. No one imposes it on you.
  • The price you are paid. This is the feed-in tariff, the price for the electricity your solar roof injects into the grid. From 2027, it will follow the market price by default, with a guaranteed minimum. Here, the Confederation sets the rule, and it applies by default, unless you have a special agreement with your distributor and a few exceptions detailed below.
  • SmartGridready. This is neither a tariff nor a law. It is an association and a standard: a common language so that these prices, and tomorrow's grid demands, reach the system controlling your devices in a format it can read. Without it, each distributor would speak its own dialect.

The first two are prices: one comes out of your pocket, the other goes into it. The third is a pipeline. They meet in your home because choosing the right time to heat water, charge your car, or run your heat pump requires knowing both prices and receiving them without manual input. Let's take them one by one.

1. What You Pay: The Purchase Tariff Can Become Dynamic

Since the tariff year 2026, your distributor, the manager of your regional grid, can make the 'network usage' portion of your bill dynamic. Instead of a fixed price or a simple day-night tariff, this portion follows the expected grid congestion the next day. According to SmartGridready, a dynamic tariff is usually announced the day before, changes every fifteen minutes or hourly depending on the distributor, and sometimes affects the energy price itself. The distributor can even make this dynamic tariff its standard, on one condition: offering you a tariff without a dynamic portion.

So, it's not an obligation but an expanding possibility. Some distributors already offer it, optionally or as a pilot, and according to SmartGridready, their number keeps growing. To know where you stand, only one source counts: your distributor.

What such a tariff rewards is shifting: a car charging at noon instead of 6 PM, a water heater heating when the price is low, a heat pump waiting an hour. No one keeps this rhythm manually for long.

2. What You Are Paid: The Feed-in Tariff Follows the Market from 2027

Here, the timeline is not set by your distributor but by the Federal Council. From January 1, 2027, unless you have a different agreement with your distributor, the electricity you inject is paid at the market price at the time of injection. This reference price is set the day before for the next day, on the Swiss market. The reason is clear: with the rapid growth of solar, sunny days increasingly result in electricity surpluses, and hours with negative prices are multiplying. The new rule aims to encourage less injection at these times and more self-consumption or storage of this electricity.

Two safeguards:

  • A guaranteed minimum: 6 cents per kWh for a solar installation under 30 kW, covering most homes. If the reference price for the quarter falls below this, the distributor pays the difference quarterly. Note: this reference price is an average calculated for all Swiss solar, not your roof. A quarter-hour at a negative price can reduce your remuneration, hence the interest in consuming or storing at these times;
  • A transition for existing installations without a smart meter: the old rule still applies, at the latest until December 31, 2027. And for some small installations without a smart meter, the distributor may offer an annual flat rate.

We detailed this change in a previous article: The Feed-in Tariff Will Become Dynamic in 2027.

Remember the difference with point 1: the dynamic purchase tariff is a choice, the market feed-in tariff becomes the rule. And the two don't necessarily move together: your distributor can pay you for injection at the market price while charging you a fixed purchase price.

3. SmartGridready: Neither a Tariff Nor a Law, a Common Language

SmartGridready is an independent, non-profit association open to all technologies. It brings together about 60 members and partners from the electricity world, and SuisseEnergie is a significant financial partner. It sets no prices and votes no laws. Its idea is summed up in one sentence: simple and standardized communication between products, buildings, and the distribution grid.

Why is this necessary? Because a price that changes every fifteen minutes is useless if it stays on a webpage. For your home to benefit, the system controlling your devices must receive it in a common format, regardless of the distributor. This is exactly where the three topics meet.

Concretely, the association works on four fronts:

  • A map of dynamic tariffs. It gathers dynamic tariffs that distributors report, with what's needed to use them. SmartGridready checks that they follow Swiss electricity sector rules and publishes them in a format that software can read.
  • Common sheets. For each use, a sheet says what information is exchanged. These sheets are public.
  • A declaration for devices. A declared device, heat pump, solar installation, charging station, or battery, can integrate simply and reliably into home energy management.
  • Labels for buildings and energy management software. A labeled building controls its major appliances, production, and battery from one place, without exceeding the power planned for its grid connection. For software, the declaration is ongoing.

A clarification that avoids much confusion: 'SG Ready' is not SmartGridready. SG Ready is a label from the German Heat Pump Association, BWP. It carries neither prices nor measurements: through two contacts, the heat pump receives a simple command. In its first version, there are four positions: blocked, normal, recommended start, forced start. The latest version keeps only three, and the first limits the heat pump's power instead of blocking it. A recommended start remains a recommendation: the heat pump may not follow it, especially for operational safety. The signal goes only one way, from the grid or energy manager to the heat pump. SmartGridready is the Swiss standard described here: it goes both ways, carries prices, powers, and states, and its sheets for heat pumps include SG Ready positions. The two coexist: an SG Ready heat pump remains controllable in a SmartGridready home.

casasmooth, a Member of the Association

casasmooth by teleia sarl is a member of the SmartGridready association. Membership is not certification: our implementation of the standard is not yet certified.

Where the Three Meet: At Your Home

Why is all this happening at the same time? SmartGridready explains it this way: there are more and more solar panels on roofs, cars and heating are switching to electricity, and neighborhood lines are reaching their limits more often. Instead of just expanding the grids, we can use the flexibility of buildings.

This flexibility, you already have it: a water heater, a heat pump, a charging station, sometimes a battery. The dynamic purchase tariff rewards it on one side, the market feed-in tariff rewards it on the other, and SmartGridready ensures that both prices arrive, in a common format, to the system controlling your devices. One question remains: who decides, every quarter-hour, what runs and what waits?

What casasmooth Already Does in Your Home

casasmooth's energy management answers this question. More details on our Energy page.

It Reads Both Prices

When your distributor publishes its tariff in SmartGridready's common format, the box reads it directly once connected: the price of what you buy and the feed-in price of what you inject. It crosses these two prices with the 48-hour solar production forecast. Heating water with midday sun instead of injecting at zero price, charging the car at the cheapest hour: the decision considers both sides of the meter.

It Plans Around Your Needs

You say what matters: the water heater must run every day, the water never drops below the chosen temperature. The box is not allowed to break these rules. With the remaining freedom, it chooses the cheapest hours. And if you start a car charge with a goal, it charges immediately, without waiting. The next action is announced clearly, with its time and expected tariff.

It Keeps Power Under Control

On a night with low tariffs, the heat pump, water heater, and charging station could start at the same time. The box knows the maximum power set for your home and makes the least urgent devices wait.

It Also Talks to Older Devices

When your heat pump has the SG Ready label mentioned above, casasmooth uses it: it advises running when energy is cheap or solar and holds back when the price or grid demands it. A controlled switch, thermostat, or water heater with no label receives the same logic and joins the same plan, without being replaced.

Your Action Comes First

If you turn on a device manually, the box lets it run for at least an hour, and as long as it's working, up to 12 hours. If you turn it off, it doesn't turn it back on for an hour. Only one thing comes before your action: a shutdown order from your distributor. And every decision is logged, stating who decided what and why.

When the Grid Demands, the Home Will Know How to Respond

Prices are the first step. The next, which SmartGridready is already working on, is direct grid demands: a power limit or a period during which certain devices wait. casasmooth already knows how to receive them. They enter the plan and rules, are logged, and remain reversible. No distributor sends them to our clients yet. The day yours does, it will remain to connect the box to your distributor, with your consent.

Want to know what your installation can gain on both sides of the meter? Discover our Energy page or contact us: tell us what you have on the roof and in the basement.

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