“Hello Bern, we are going to have a problem” – Alpiq came close to disaster at Christmas

– Alpiq came close to disaster at Christmas

The Confederation was asked to come to his aid because of the crazy tensions on the electricity market. Investigation of a crazy week.

Updated 13 minutes ago

La Grande Dixence in all its winter splendour, owned by Alpiq. (KEYSTONE/Peter Klaunzer)

KEYSTONE

«Hello Bern, we are going to have a big problem.» Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga will no doubt remember this phone call from Alpiq for a long time. The company, which owns the Grande-Dixence and many other alpine dams, property of the cantons and cities of French-speaking Switzerland, found itself in the middle of a nightmare at Christmas.

She only had a few days to find financial guarantees (in cash) of several hundred million francs. Between 500 million and 1.5 billion, according to our survey! Otherwise it would be put in default of payment by the Bourses on which it sells its electricity. Not that it lacked customers, electricity to offer, or even money in its coffers., but because it had to comply with a guarantee mechanism required by stock market and electricity trading regulations.