Axpo Holding

Axpo's roots go back to the beginning of electrification in Switzerland over 100 years ago.[10]

In 1908, the former Motor AG connected its low-pressure hydropower plant at Beznau, Aargau, with the storage power plant at Löntsch, Glarus to the power grid with a 100-kilometre long 27-kilovolt (kV)-line. The founder of Motor AG was Walter Boveri, co-founder of Brown, Boveri & Cie. Secure power supply became important early on, as political pressure to transfer it from private to public hands increased. In 1914 the cantons of Aargau, Glarus, Zurich, Thurgau, Schaffhausen and Zug united to form Nordostschweizerischen Kraftwerke AG (NOK),[11] and took over the Beznau-Löntsch power plants. The cantons of Schaffhausen and Appenzell Innerrhoden followed later. NOK completed its own first hydropower plant in 1920 at Eglisau on the Rhine. The plant has been protected as an historic monument since 1979.

In 1958, Germany, France and Switzerland were interconnected with a 220-kV grid, which was expanded to the 380-kV voltage level in 1967. The central switch field was known as the "Star of Laufenburg",[12][13] and becamee the basis for international interconnected grid operation.

In December 1969, the first unit of the Beznau nuclear power plant (KKB) went into commercial operation after a construction period of four years. In 1971, the sister unit, Beznau 2, went into operation. In reaction to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 the Swiss Federal Council decided not to build new nuclear power plants. Germany decided to phase-out nuclear power by 2022 and took older nuclear power plants off grid, while putting decommissioned coal-fired power plants back into operation.[14] In 2017, Swiss voters rejected the initiative to withdraw from nuclear power in a referendum. Nuclear power plants should be operated as long as they are safe, to bridge gaps until the Energy Strategy 2050[15] can take effect. However, the "no" should not be interpreted as a "yes" to nuclear power.[16]

At the same time, Germany strongly supported the subsidised expansion of wind and solar power. This led to the collapse of wholesale prices on power exchanges, and revenues went down for power-producing companies like Axpo.[17][18] In 2005, Axpo (then still NOK) launched a large-scale project, "Linthal 2015", in the Glarus Alps. At the altitude of the Limmernsee, the Muttsee-Limmernsee stage was extended with a pumped storage plant with a capacity of 1000 megawatts (MW). Planning and construction took about ten years. Costs were CHF 1.2 billion.[19]

At the end of the 1990s, the EU started the gradual liberalisation of the power market. In order to turn NOK into a Europe-competent power company, NOK as well as the NOK cantons and their utilities founded Axpo Holding AG in 2001. The company comprises NOK, Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG (CKW) and EGL AG, which later becames Axpo Solutions AG. In 2009, the traditional NOK became Axpo AG, renamed Axpo Power AG three years later.[20].

At the end of 2016, UBS downgraded Axpo's credit rating to "BBB+". Since then, Axpo's situation has stabilised thanks to significant cost reductions and higher electricity prices (see current credit ratings).[21]The company has expanded in wind and solar energy since financial year 2014–15.

The most notable acquisitions have been the full take-over of the German Volkswind (2015)[22] and the French Urbasolar (2019).[23] In addition, Axpo holds an interest of 24.1% in Global Tech I. The off-shore wind farm has been in operation since 2015.[24] According to its own statements, the company wants to continue expanding the area of renewable energies, including long-term power contracts (Power Purchase Agreements, PPA).[25] Processes will be increasingly digitalised in order to increase synergies and become more competitive.[26]

The Axpo Group supplies some 3 million people and several thousand industrial and commercial enterprises in Northeastern Switzerland and Central Switzerland with energy and energy-related services. Axpo Holding is owned by the cantons of Northeastern Switzerland and their utilities.[27]

In Switzerland, Axpo mainly supplies Northeastern Switzerland with electricity in the business-to-business area. The largest customers are the cantons and public utilities. In Central Switzerland, the subsidiary CKW supplies nearly 200,000 private customers and approx. 5,000 business customers directly, as well as additional customers indirectly.[32]

In Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland, Axpo has a total of around 400,000 deliver points for electricity and over 45,000 deliver points for gas directly, as well as through sales partners.[32]

The Axpo power mix[33] with hydropower, nuclear energy and biomass is climate-friendly insofar as it hardly results in CO₂ emissions in Switzerland. However, owing to its gas-fired power plants in Italy, Axpo has on average emitted about 3 million tonnes of CO₂ p.a. with its own power plant park in the past years.[34]

However, seen over the entire power plant park, the Axpo power mix is already at the level that Europe strives to achieve by the year 2035.

Based on the Annual Report 2018–19, Axpo also achieved cumulative energy efficiency increases of about 90 gigawatt hours (GWh) over the last six years.[27]

Since financial year 2014–15 up to today, the company has nearly doubled its own wind and solar energy portfolio, mainly abroad, and biomass from 350 MW to 620 MW.[31]

Axpo also sees these investments as well as the expansion of business with long-term power procurement agreements (PPA) for non-subsidised renewable energies as a contribution to the sustainability goals of the United Nations.[35]

As a member of the UNO, Switzerland is expected to help implement these goals by 2030, whereby the private sector, particularly energy companies, play a key role.

International energy trading is the traditional business of the former Axpo Trading AG (previously EGL AG) and today's Axpo Solutions AG. Axpo is accredited on numerous energy exchanges and broker platforms throughout Europe. The company buys and sells power as well as natural gas, oil and energy derivatives. The company links the solar and wind power business with the marketing business by means of so-called Power Purchase Agreements (PPA). [51]

In 2011, Axpo was nominated for the Public Eye Award, which according to the initiators awards companies that exhibit especially responsible conduct toward human-beings and society. However the award went to another company. According to the nomination text, the Russian plant Majak, purchase point for fuel assemblies, is the "most contaminated place on in the world". The Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: The fact that environmentalists knew more about the origin than the Axpo specialists is embarrassing.[52] Axpo wanted to visit the plant, although even inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been refused entry.[53][54] On 12 November 2011, Axpo communicates that it has "temporarily issued the order" to suspend purchasing fuel assemblies from Majak. Axpo claimed that there was "no evidence of prohibited exposure". The assemblies comply with "internationally accepted regulations" and fulfilled "legal requirements".

In 2014, the company announced that after an interim suspension, it would no longer use uranium from the Russian Majak area.

Up until the year 2012, Axpo Holding was the main sponsor for the top Swiss soccer league, the Axpo Super League.

The greenhouse gas intensity for the Group's entire power plant park, including plants abroad (such as gas and steam in Italy) amounted to 97 g CO₂ equivalents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in financial year 2018–19. As a comparison: The value for the European power mix is at about 300 g.[55]

In 2018 Axpo generated an average of 103 grams of CO₂ equivalents and 29 cubic-millimetres of nuclear waste per kilowatt-hour. Among the four largest energy companies in Switzerland – in addition to Axpo these are Alpiq, BKW and Repower – Axpo was in the medium range with an average of 316 environmental impact points (EIP).

• www.axpo.com
• Website der Axpo Holding