BKW, AEK and onyx are merging their networks
The energy service provider BKW and its sister companies AEK and onyx are joining forces. They will join forces in January 2022 and operate their electricity grids together. All locations and jobs are to be retained.
BKW Energie AG in Bern, AEK Energie AG in Solothurn and onyx Energie Mittelland AG in Langenthal will all operate under one roof on January 1, 2022. The merger of the three distribution network operators of the BKW Group is to be approved at the general meetings of AEK and onyx next year, according to a media release .
The locations in the areas of Emmental, Oberaargau, Seeland, Oberland, Jura and Solothurn are to be retained, as are the more than 600 jobs in the areas of energy, buildings and infrastructure.
The employees are to develop the largest distribution network in Switzerland in the future. For this purpose, a place for new, future-oriented cooperation models in the areas of energy and infrastructure will be created in Solothurn.
The merger of the networks is a reaction of the companies to a changing market environment in the course of the energy transition, according to the media release. So there are increasingly high power peaks when owners of electric cars connect their cars for charging at the same time.
In addition, more and more consumers who produce electricity themselves are feeding their surpluses into the grid. This leads to higher costs. These additional costs are to be cushioned through closer coordination, standardization and automation of the previously independent networks.
The networks from BKW, AEK and onyx supply one million people with electricity. They include 425,000 connections and 22,000 kilometers of network along the Aare from the Grimsel to Solothurn and in the Jura.