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The high electricity prices tear a million hole in the coffers of the Bern transport company. These are the reasons.
If the Berner Verkehrsbetriebe Bernmobil were a normal company, it would be bankrupt. Because the corona losses have already eaten up all reserves. The 2021 deficit of over 20 million was covered by the public sector.
Now the skyrocketing electricity prices are tearing another million hole in the coffers. “We expect additional costs in the millions and have no more reserves,” says Bernmobil spokesman Rolf Meyer to the SRF regional journal Bern Freiburg Valais.
The problem: The company buys the electricity on the electricity exchange every day. And there the prices go crazy.
We expect additional costs in the millions and have no more reserves.
Bernmobil cannot yet estimate how high the additional costs will actually be at the end of the year. The company uses a lot of electricity. Running the trams and buses alone consumes 51 gigawatts of electricity per year. This corresponds to the consumption of a city with a good 20,000 inhabitants.
Electricity deal backfires
However, the high consumption is not the only problem. Because an electricity deal from 2019 will be fatal to Bernmobil: At that time, the company and the city decided to use a loophole in procurement law and not to publicly advertise the electricity requirement. The competition commission Weko waved the deal through with restrictions.
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Bernmobil is increasingly using electric buses. This further increases power consumption.
Keystone/Marcel Bieri
The result: since 2021, the company has had to buy the electricity for the trams and buses every day on the electricity exchange. Previously, Energie Wasser Bern (EWB) sold electricity to Bernmobil at fixed agreed prices, which at the time were higher than the daily prices.
Are ticket prices going up now?
What’s next at Bernmobil? The company cannot simply pass on the foreseeable loss of millions to the passengers with higher ticket prices. Likewise, thinning out the timetables is not an option.
“We are obliged to drive our offer and are bound to the prices of the tariff association,” said Bernmobil spokesman Meyer. You have to look at how you can absorb the additional costs through “compensation in other areas”.
Although Bernmobil is owned by the city of Bern, it is financed by the canton and the federal government. There is always the possibility of negotiating with the customer, Meyer continues. He could not say whether concrete negotiations were already underway because of the additional costs. Because of Corona, Bernmobil made a loss of 20 million francs in 2021, which was covered by the public sector.
That’s what the city and canton say about the electricity fiasco
Do taxpayers have to intervene again? The canton said on request that they were informed about the situation. And the city of Bern’s traffic director Marieke Kruit (SP) says about the situation at Bermobil: “We have to start thinking in terms of options”. One will question the action in the procurement of electricity prices “very critically”.