Axpo Holding
Axpo Holding AG, headquartered in Baden in the canton of Aargau, and its subsidiaries constitute the energy company Axpo. Axpo Holding AG was established in 2001, is 100-percent publicly owned and originates from the former Nordostschweizerischen Kraftwerke AG, NOK.
Axpo produces, distributes and markets electricity and is active in international energy trading, as well as in the energy services business. The company is present internationally in approx. 30 countries.
Axpo is the largest energy company in Switzerland, and according to its own statement, the largest Swiss producer of electricity from renewable energies. A large portion of domestic power generation comes from hydropower and nuclear power. The focus abroad is on wind and solar energy. The company also owns gas and steam combined-cycle power plants. The firm has about 5000 employees.
History
Axpo's roots go back to the beginning of electrification in Switzerland over 100 years ago.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 -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, 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", and became the basis for international interconnected grid operation.
In December 1969, the first unit of the Beznau nuclear power plant 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. 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 can take effect. However, the "no" should not be interpreted as a "yes" to nuclear power.
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. In 2005, Axpo 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. Planning and construction took about ten years. Costs were CHF 1.2 billion.
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 and EGL AG, which later became Axpo Solutions AG. In 2009, the traditional NOK became Axpo AG, renamed Axpo Power AG three years later.
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. 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 and the French Urbasolar. In addition, Axpo holds an interest of 24.1% in Global Tech I. The off-shore wind farm has been in operation since 2015. According to its own statements, the company wants to continue expanding the area of renewable energies, including long-term power contracts. Processes will be increasingly digitalised in order to increase synergies and become more competitive.
Company
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.Company figures
The following table presents Axpo's company figures for the financial years 2011–12 to 2019–20:| FY | Income | Profit/Loss | Employees |
| 2011–12 | 7'346 | 329 | 4'368 |
| 2012–13 | 7'025 | 364 | 4'430 |
| 2013–14 | 6'705 | -838 | 4'435 |
| 2014–15 | 5'860 | -867 | 4'312 |
| 2015–16 | 5'416 | -1'226 | 4'293 |
| 2016–17 | 5'567 | -269 | 4'231 |
| 2017–18 | 4'850 | 131 | 4'441 |
| 2018–19 | 4'856 | 865 | 4'958 |
| 2019–20 | 4'808 | 570 | 5'350 |
Note: The difference in net profit in 2018–19 as compared to the previous year can be mainly attributed to a so-called reversal of impairment losses amounting to CHF 398 million. This seeks to take increasing wholesale power prices into account.
Shareholders
The shares of Axpo Holding are fully held by the cantons of Northeastern Switzerland and their utilities.These are:
- Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich with 18,410 %
- Kanton Zürich with 18,342 %
- AEW Energie with 14,026 %
- Kanton Aargau with 13,975 %
- St. Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke with 12,501 %
- EKT Holding with 12,251 %
- Kanton Schaffhausen with 7,875 %
- Kanton Glarus with 1,747 %
- Kanton Zug with 0,873 %
Subsidiaries and business areas
- Axpo Power AG, 100% of shares
- Axpo Solutions AG, 100% of shares
- Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG, CKW, 81% of shares
- Avectris AG, 65,6 % of shares
The "Trading & Sales" area markets energy from the power plant portfolio and is active in energy trading throughout Europe. Axpo mainly trades power, natural gas, biomass, certificates and green certificates for energy from renewable sources. The company is also active in the so-called origination business, which, in contrast to standard products, is based on products where the supplier takes over and manages customer risks.
CKW AG supplies nearly 200,000 private customers in the cantons of Lucerne, Uri and Schwyz. Avectris AG offers IT services to Axpo, the utilities of Northeastern Switzerland as well as to third party customers.
Markets
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.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.
Sustainability
The Axpo power mix with hydropower, nuclear energy and biomass is climate-friendly insofar as it hardly results in emissions in Switzerland. However, owing to its gas-fired power plants in Italy, Axpo has on average emitted about 3 million tonnes of p.a. with its own power plant park in the past years.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 over the last six years.
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.
Axpo also sees these investments as well as the expansion of business with long-term power procurement agreements for non-subsidised renewable energies as a contribution to the sustainability goals of the United Nations.
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.
Production facilities
Installed power plant capacities
Axpo operates over 100 power plants and has installed power plant capacities amounting to about 9,400 MW, status at the end of September 2019 The majority can be attributed to domestic hydropower.Source: Axpo Sustainability Report 2018–19, page 32. Values in the table have been rounded off. The main changes as compared to the previous year are in new energies abroad owing to the acquisition of Urbasolar.
Safety
Plant safety: With regard to the safety of nuclear facilities, the Axpo Sustainability Report 2018–2019 states: "Axpo is committed to complying with the international nuclear safety standards specified by the IAEA Safety Convention and ratified by Switzerland. National and international authorities carry out nuclear safety checks on a regular basis. Regular safety checks are very important.... In addition, safety at the nuclear installations is analysed and appraised by WANO on a regular basis."Dam facilities are continuously monitored and inspected regularly. Dams in a certain category must withstand earthquakes of a magnitude that is expected only every 10,000 years. The facilities fall under the supervision of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.
Security of energy supply: The Axpo power plant park combines plants that can generate base load, peak energy and control energy. In Switzerland, Axpo has a production capacity of approx. 25 billion kWh and a power grid covering 2000 kilometres.
The average time of a supply interruption per end consumer is low. In the Annual Report 2018–19, this was 0.25 min./a. for Axpo Grids and 21.6 min./a. for CKW.