Is it worth joining an LEG? An honest example calculation

The confirmation of admission to a local electricity community sounds promising: “Discount on grid usage costs: 20%.” Since this summer, we ourselves have been members of a municipality-wide LEG in the EKZ area, and before the first bill arrives, I wanted to know what this discount means in Swiss francs. The short answer surprised me: the amount on our electricity bill will change by almost exactly zero francs. And that is not an oversight, but intentional. The long answer is still worthwhile, because it shows when an LEG does bring in money after all.

If LEGs are new to you: This explains how they work. If electricity bills are new to you: Here they are explained item by item.

Three caveats not mentioned in the welcome letter

The 20 percent discount sounds like 20 percent lower electricity costs. In fact, it applies:

1. Only to the energy-based grid usage price. Not to energy, levies, metering or the basic tariff. With the EKZ 400F grid tariff, that is 7.50 centimes/kWh out of total costs of around 22 centimes/kWh.
2. Only to the LEG share of consumption. In other words, to the kilowatt-hours covered, in fifteen-minute intervals, by simultaneous local production. For a household without special load management, that is roughly 20 to 40 percent of annual consumption, naturally little at night and in winter.
3. Less the provider’s costs. Anyone not organising the LEG themselves but using the grid operator’s convenience offer pays a service fee per LEG kilowatt-hour.

And everything comes down to point 3.

The calculation using EKZ’s “Gemeinsamstrom” offer

EKZ charges a service fee of 1.50 centimes/kWh (excluding VAT) for its LEG product, on every LEG kilowatt-hour. The 20 percent discount on grid tariff 400F is: 7.50 × 0.20 = 1.50 centimes/kWh.

That is no coincidence; it is product design. Per LEG kilowatt-hour, the calculation looks like this (all figures excluding VAT, EKZ tariffs 2026, summer and winter quarter respectively):

The discount and the fee cancel each other out exactly. EKZ itself writes that the offer is an “upgrade to local solar power at no extra cost compared with basic supply”, and that is exactly what it means: cost-neutral, not cost-reducing. Those on the standard tariff 400ST (7.95 centimes/kWh) gain, mathematically, 0.09 centimes per LEG kWh; on the heat-pump tariff 400WP (6.45 centimes/kWh), they lose 0.21 centimes. In francs: with annual consumption of 10’000 kWh and an optimistic 30 percent LEG share, we are talking about plus or minus a few francs per year. That is rounding noise, not a return.

That is also how it looks for us: the same bill amount as before, except the bill has new line items (reduced grid usage plus service fee on the LEG share), and in accounting terms, part of the supply now comes from roofs in the municipality rather than from the general supply mix.

When an LEG does make a financial difference

The cost-neutral outcome applies to a specific, albeit common, case: pure consumer, municipality-wide LEG (20 percent tier), grid operator’s convenience offer. There are three ways out:

1. The 40 percent tier. If all participants are connected to the same transformer station, the discount doubles: 40 percent of 7.50 centimes is 3.00 centimes, minus the 1.50-centime service fee leaves 1.50 centimes per LEG kWh. At 3’000 LEG kWh per year, that is around 49 francs (including VAT). Still not a fortune, but a genuine discount. Neighbourhood LEGs are therefore financially more attractive than municipality-wide LEGs.

2. Organise it yourself. The service fee is the price of doing nothing. A self-managed LEG keeps the full discount and sets energy prices internally; but it needs someone to handle contracts, allocation keys and billing. Beyond a certain size and with an affordable billing service provider, this can work out, but hardly for individual households.

3. Own production. The real winner of an LEG is the solar installation. EKZ pays LEG producers with up to 30 kWp seasonally 11.97 centimes/kWh (winter quarters) and 9.00 centimes/kWh (summer quarters, both excluding VAT). Normal feed-in remuneration, by contrast, is based on the quarterly reference market price; by law, installations below 30 kW are guaranteed only 6.00 centimes/kWh, plus up to 3.00 centimes for guarantees of origin. The comparison for 2026:

In summer, when most surplus arises, the two routes differ very little in 2026; in winter, the LEG is about one centime ahead. The greater effect is strategic: LEG remuneration is tied to the energy component of basic supply and is therefore more predictable than the reference market price, which continues to come under pressure with every additional solar installation. Anyone only planning their installation has a more reliable sales channel with an LEG than on the spot market.

Are there reasons to leave again?

Financially, in the grid operator model: no, there is simply nothing to gain and nothing to lose. The EKZ offer includes a monthly right to return without switching fees, and customers remain on basic supply for residual electricity anyway. As a member, I would still review two things every year:

• The ratio between discount and service fee. In 2026, it is calibrated to exactly zero. If the grid operator changes the grid tariff or fee asymmetrically for the following year, the cost-neutral outcome can become a small gain or loss. The tariff sheets for the following year are published at the end of August.
• Compatibility with tariff changes. Anyone wanting to switch to a dynamic tariff or another energy product should clarify whether it can be combined with LEG consumption.

Conclusion

The 20 percent discount is real money; with the standard offer, it simply does not end up with the consumer but with the provider, which takes care of the entire organisation in return. For pure consumers, joining an LEG is therefore a non-financial decision at no cost: local solar power in the accounting balance, better remuneration for producers in the village, no personal risk. For producers and neighbourhood arrangements with a 40 percent discount, it also becomes financially attractive.

Anyone wanting to run through their own figures (different grid tariff, different LEG share, own PV, different service fee): there is now the LEG price calculator, which performs exactly this calculation interactively.

Figures: EKZ tariff collection 2026 and EKZ product “Gemeinsamstrom”, as of August 2026, excluding VAT. Other grid operators, other terms; the mechanism remains the same.