61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Swiss Federal legislation, the VSE organised and allocated the rational use of
water resources and safeguarded the integration of the various networks. The
Swiss Confederation had delegated responsibility for the granting of licences to
the cantons and had no stake in the companies. However, it did have legislative
competence; it regulated and controlled exports so as to avoid any adverse effects
on domestic consumption. From 1930, the Federal Office for Electric Energy
(Bundesamt für Elektrizitätswirtschaft) took over general supervision, headed by
the engineer Florian Lusser from its foundation until 1960. The powerful
electricity lobby wanted to avoid any dependence on the Social Democrat
Robert Grimm, the head of the «Energy and Heating Section» («Sektion Kraft
und Wärme»), who focussed on energy-saving and not on energy consumption.
In 1941, it was able to secure special status as an industry essential to the war
economy, which meant that it was independent of this Section.
A key feature of the electricity industry was that it required major initial
investment for the construction of plants (reservoir dams and turbines), but had
relatively low operating costs thereafter. Such investments were potentially very
profitable, but only over the long term. However, this required the support of
a strong finance group, and the sale of all the electricity produced, i.e.,
including surplus output via exports. With minor fluctuations, exports totalled
20–24% of output during the period 1930–1943 (and peaked in 1936),
compared with just 13% and 9% in 1944 and 1945.
The major companies financing the electric power generation plants were all
established before the first World War, with shareholdings by the major banks
and some industrial companies with close links to the electricity sector (such as
the Swiss BBC, the German AEG and the Italian Pirelli); the most important
finance companies were Elektrobank (Zurich), Motor Columbus (Baden),
Indelec (Basel) and to a lesser extent two Geneva-based companies, Italo-Suisse
and Société générale pour l’Industrie Electrique. They very rapidly extended
their corporate activities to areas outside Switzerland too, i.e. Germany, Italy,
France and the Americas. In 1939, three-quarters of their 400 million francs of
investment were located abroad: more than a quarter in Italy, 17% in South
America, 10% in France and just 5% in Germany.
Compared with the Swiss electric power industry, German electricity output –
85% of which was thermal in origin, more expensive, and less competitive –
was relatively weak, totalling 25.6 billion kWh in 1933 and 74 billion kWh in
1942, the latter, however, within the expanded borders of 1942. Until the
beginning of the war, Germany produced slightly more electricity than it
consumed (coverage fell from 108% in 1933 to 100% in 1939). Nonetheless,
Germany imported electricity from Switzerland because Swiss electricity was
far cheaper, and customers in Waldshut, Singen and Konstanz were located far
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