Swissgrid

Swissgrid AG
Aktiengesellschaft
Founded 2005
Headquarters Aarau, Switzerland
Key people
 Yves Zumwald (CEO)
Adrian Bult (Chairman of the Board of Directors)
Number of employees
 450 (21.06.2018)
Website www.swissgrid.ch

Swissgrid, based in Aarau and Prilly, is the Swiss transmission grid operator. It is subject to supervision by the Swiss Federal Electricity Commission ElCom.

History

Swissgrid headquarters in Aarau, 2018

Swissgrid was established in January 2005 by Switzerland’s main electricity grid companies as part of the liberalisation of the electricity market. From 15 December 2006 Swissgrid coordinated Switzerland's transmission grid (380/220 kV), comprised up to that point of eight control areas. With the changeover on the night of 31 December 2008 to 1 January 2009 from eight control areas to one zone covering the whole of Switzerland, Swissgrid took over the operation of the entire 6,700-kilometre extra high-voltage grid.[1] When the transfer was entered in the commercial register on 3 January 2013, Swissgrid became the new owner of the Swiss transmission grid.[2] Swiss transmission system operator Swissgrid has since been responsible not only for the operation of the transmission grid but also for its maintenance, renewal and expansion. The statutory requirement was thus met for the electricity companies to have completed the transfer of the transmission grid to Swissgrid by 1 January 2013 at the latest.

Organisation

Swissgrid includes four corporate divisions: Grid, Market, Technology and Corporate Services. The members of the Executive Board are:

  • Yves Zumwald, CEO
  • Maurice Dierick, Head of Grid
  • Doris Barnet, Head of Corporate Services
  • Rainer Mühlberger, Head of Technology
  • Yves Zumwald, Head of Market a.i.

The Electricity Supply Act requires that the majority of Members and the Chairman of the Board of Directors, as well as the Members of the Executive, do not belong to the boards of any legal entities which are engaged in activities in the fields of electricity generation or sales, or are in a service-provision relationship with any such legal entities. At present the Board of Directors is made up of five independents and four industry representatives. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is appointed from among the independents.

Shareholders

  • BKW Netzbeteiligung AG 36,4 %
  • Axpo Power AG 22,9 %
  • Axpo Trading AG 8,8 %
  • Elektrizitätswerk der Stadt Zürich (EWZ) 8,7 %
  • SIRESO Société d’Investissement de Suisse occidentale SA 4,4 %
  • Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke|Centralschweizerische Kraftwerke AG 4,2 %
  • Kraftwerke Hinterrhein|Kraftwerke Hinterrhein AG 1,9 %
  • Azienda Elettrica Ticinese (AET) 1,7 %
  • Officine idroelettriche della Maggia SA (Ofima) 1,6 %
  • Kraftwerke Linth-Limmern AG 1,5 %
  • SN Energie AG 1,3 %
  • Forces Motrices Valaisannes SA (FMV) 1,1 %
  • Industrielle Werke Basel|Industrielle Werke Basel (IWB) 0,8 %
  • Forces Motrices de Mauvoisin S.A. 0,8 %
  • EnAlpin AG 0,7 %
  • Officine Idroelettriche di Blenio SA (Ofible) 0,5 %
  • Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG 0,4 %
  • Grande Dixence SA 0,4 %
  • Aziende Industriali di Lugano SA (AIL) 0,4 %
  • Kraftwerke Mattmark AG 0,4 %
  • Forces Motrices Hongrin-Léman SA (FMHL) 0,2 %
  • Elektrizitätswerk Obwalden 0,1 %
  • Engadiner Kraftwerke AG 0,1 %
  • Kraftwerke Vorderrhein AG 0,1 %
  • Alpiq Suisse SA 0,1 %
  • General Electric Technology GmbH <0,1 %
  • Electra-Massa AG <0,1 %
  • Kraftwerke Sarganserland AG <0,1 %
  • AEK Energie AG <0,1 %
  • Aare Versorgungs AG (AVAG) <0,1 %
  • Repower AG <0,1 %

Cooperative ventures

In the context of the European exchange of electricity, the company was a member of the European grid association, the "Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity" (UCTE) and of the organisation of the European transmission grid operators (European Transmission System Operators, ETSO). These two associations have now been merged into the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), which was established in December 2008 in Prague and took up its operational role in the summer of 2009. Swissgrid is also a member of the TSO Security Cooperation (TSC)[3] and since November 2010 it has been a shareholder of the Capacity Allocation Service Company[4] (CASC).

KPIs of the Swiss transmission grid

The Swiss transmission grid, 6,700 km in length, operates at voltages of 220 kilovolts and 380 kilovolts and a frequency of 50 Hz. It has 141 substations and 12,000 electricity pylons. The electricity transported in 2016 amounted to 73‘775 Gigawatt hours (GWh). In September 2017 Swissgrid along with SBB announced that in few months the high voltage lines would be combined in Urner Talboden for the transportation of electricity over north and south. These two independent lines will be bundled on a common route.[5]

Cost-covering remuneration for feed-in to the electricity grid

On behalf of the federal government, Swissgrid handles the receipt and administration of the cost-covering remuneration for feed-in to the electricity grid (CRF), i.e. the surcharges on the transmission costs for high-voltage grids. Swissgrid established the foundation for cost-covering remuneration for feed-in to the electricity grid (CRF) for this purpose.

References

  1. ↑ Swissgrid - History
  2. ↑ Swissgrid takes over the Swiss transmission grid
  3. ↑ TSO Security Cooperation: Who we are
  4. ↑ CASC: Bottleneck management in Europe
  5. ↑ eenews. "Swissgrid und SBB: Legen ihre Hochspannungsleitungen zusammen (ee-news.ch)". www.ee-news.ch. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.