In December 2021, the Mels power station found damage. Since then, the construction companies have been arguing about who has to pay for it, and the operating company has been buying the missing electricity on the market ever since.
The Chapfensee in Mels, St. Gallen.
The Chapfensee hydroelectric power station in Mels in the canton of St. Gallen has not produced any electricity for more than a year. Instead, the water from the lake flows directly into a stream. This was reported by SRF on Wednesday evening. On request, the operating company EW Mels confirms that the power plant is still out of service due to a defective pressure line.
The power plant was extensively renovated five years ago. At the end of 2021, the operators noticed that water was leaking from the newly laid pressure line between Lake Chapfensee and the Plons power plant. Since then, the construction companies involved in the renovation have been arguing about who is responsible for the damage. The case has been before the Commercial Court since August.
Buy expensive electricity
The storage power plant in Mels normally produces an average of 24.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. This roughly corresponds to the power consumption of 5,500 households with five-room apartments. This makes it one of the smaller storage power plants. For comparison: the Grande Dixence storage power plant in Valais produces 2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year with its four pumping stations.
60 percent of Swiss electricity is produced by hydropower. The majority of this comes from run-of-river power plants that produce electricity using river water. However, storage power plants like Mels are valuable because they can be switched on and off flexibly. They provide power when it is most needed. This is in the summer to compensate for the nuclear power plants and in the winter when electricity consumption is higher.
Buy electricity at the market
Despite the comparatively small production volume, the storage power plant is important for the region. It is the largest of five of Mels’ power and water plants and provides 47 percent of the company’s annual electricity production. Together with other power plants, the EW Mels supplies the settlement areas in the valley as well as distant areas such as Weisstannen, Schwendi and Vermol.
As the power company writes in a statement, it cannot repair the damage itself. Investigations have also shown that the damage affects even more than the defective pipe and that the geology can be ruled out as the cause. However, the companies responsible for the work at the time cannot agree on who is responsible for the damage.
The EW Mels therefore turned on the Commercial Court of St. Gallen in August. More than half a year has passed since then and the costs are steadily increasing. Because as long as the power plant does not produce electricity, EW Mels has to buy the missing electricity expensively on the market. The power plant will therefore suffer a loss of several million francs. It is unclear when the court will render a verdict.