The story
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 (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), 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 (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. 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 (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.
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 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 (see current credit ratings). 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) and the French Urbasolar (2019). 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 (Power Purchase Agreements, PPA). Processes will be increasingly digitalised in order to increase synergies and become more competitive.
From Wikipedia’s article on Axpo Holding, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5