“By supplying the energy for our chairlifts, snowmakers and restaurants, Repower helps give our guests the ultimate snow experience.”
Beat Zenklusen, manager of Bergbahnen Brigels Waltensburg Andiast AG, in front of “his” snow cannon.
At 707 gigawatt hours, the volume of energy generated by the company's own hydropower facilities in Canton Graubünden in 2015 came in above the 10-year average. However, the market price of electricity remained so low that it was not possible to profitably capitalise on this. Last year Repower continued to invest in maintaining the operating status of its assets with clearly focused capital expenditure of around CHF 4.8 million.
In April 2015, Repower submitted the application for approval of the Lagobianco pumped-storage project to the Canton Graubünden authorities. The same month the company also handed in the request for concession approval for the Chlus hydropower project following signature of the relevant agreements with the 12 concession-granting municipalities. Given the economic environment and Repower's limited scope for investment, a decision to proceed with realising the Lagobianco project is still not conceivable. However, since the Chlus plant would eliminate positive and negative surge in the Landquart and enable fish passage along the entire river, significant co-funding with resources earmarked for river restoration and rehabilitation would be possible for this project. Not only this, but as part of the first package of measures related to the Swiss federal government's energy strategy, funding has been earmarked for projects such as Chlus. Repower also submitted an application for approval of the Taschinas 2 hydropower plant concession and project. Finally, Canton Graubünden authorised the renovation of the Morteratsch power plant, enabling the plant to generate double the amount of electricity. Thanks to the feed-in remuneration at cost (KEV) scheme, Morteratsch can also be run profitably in the difficult environment that prevails at present. Preliminary construction commenced in 2015, and the main work will begin in the spring of 2016.