Primeo Energie (AVAG) procures most of its electricity from the market. Customers have therefore benefited from very low procurement prices in recent years. With the changed market situation, Primeo Energie (AVAG) now has to pass on the very high market prices to its customers.

Since the start of 2021, wholesale prices on the stock exchanges have seen a steep upward trend, reaching CHF 600 per megawatt hour in mid-August 2022 (a tenfold increase since 2021), by far the highest value in 13 years. Primeo Energie (AVAG) has to significantly raise the price of electricity for the basic supply because of record-high wholesale prices resulting from large power plants in France being off the grid, the effects of the Ukrainian War, and other factors.

Der Bund hat 2022 die «Winterreserve» (Wasserkraftreserve, Reservekraftwerke, Notstromgruppen) geschaffen, um die Stromversorgung im Winter 2022/2023 zu gewährleisten. Die Kosten für diese Notfallmassnahmen fliessen 2024 erstmals in den Netznutzungstarif des Strompreises ein und tragen damit auch zum Strompreisanstieg bei.

Die neue Abgabe für die Stromreserve zur Finanzierung der Vorhaltung der Wasserkraftreserve und Verfügbarkeit von Reservekraftwerken beträgt 1,20 Rp./kWh (ohne MWST).​

No reliable statements are possible about this. The price of electricity on the stock exchanges is the result of supply and demand in the electricity market. In addition, market prices in the electricity sector are closely linked to market prices of other energy sources, e.g. gas, used for producing electricity. The price on the stock exchanges may rise and fall depending on the situation. If electricity prices on the exchanges fall, prices in basic supply for end-users will also decrease. It is currently not possible to predict when this will happen.

No. The increase in electricity prices varies by supplier. The differences depend largely on how much electricity is sourced from own production or procured from the market. Four out of five energy suppliers stated that they procure most of their electricity from the market. This includes Primeo Energie. Customers have therefore benefited from very low procurement prices in recent years. Energy suppliers with a large share of own production have to raise their prices slightly or moderately. In the past, however, they generally had higher prices because their production costs were already above the market.

Primeo Energie's sponsorship and advertising as a whole have no influence on the electricity prices of end customers in the basic supply and therefore the monopoly area in the grid business segment. In accordance with the requirements of the legislator (regulator), the costs of market development (advertising, sponsorship) may not be charged to the grid and therefore not to customers in the basic supply. Accordingly, the costs for sponsoring and advertising are borne by EBM (Genossenschaft Elektra Birseck) and by the companies that provide their products and services on the free market and thus in a competitive environment.

The increase in the electricity price is based on the fact that Primeo Energie has little in-house production and therefore procures a large part of its electricity requirements on the market. Although Primeo Energie procures the majority of its electricity on the market, the high prices on the exchanges could be cushioned in the basic supply. The reason for this is the multi-year structured procurement and the long-term energy procurement rights from the Birsfelden and Augst hydropower plants as well as from photovoltaic plants in the grid area and Alpiq's power plant park. Primeo Energie has also invested a total of CHF 25 million to cushion the price surcharge for customers in the basic supply.

We recommend that private households use energybox.ch to determine their energy-saving potential and to get valuable information. An energy consultancy can help with more complex issues.

You can easily check your energy consumption in the Primeo Energie customer portal my.primeo-energie.ch. If you have not created a login yet, please select the “Register” tab at the top and fill in the fields accordingly.

For customers with bills on account, the prepayment amounts will be adjusted as a precautionary measure in line with the new estimated electricity costs for 2023.

Aufgrund der Abstimmung «Bundesbeschluss über die Zusatzfinanzierung der AHV durch eine Erhöhung der Mehrwertsteuer» vom 25. September 2022 wird die Mehrwertsteuer auf 8.1% erhöht.