Facts

The facts concern the determination of the grid usage tariffs for the year 2009 by the national grid company swissgrid ag. The Swiss Federal Electricity Commission ElCom had corrected and reduced these tariffs in a ruling dated March 6, 2009. BKW FMB Energie AG and BKW Übertragungsnetz AG appealed against this.

The Federal Supreme Court has partially upheld the appeal. It has decided the following:

  • The synthetically determined asset value is to be reduced by only 20% in accordance with the last sentence of Art. 13 para. 4 of the Electricity Supply Ordinance (StromVV). The additional 20.5% reduction by ElCom is eliminated.
  • The use of the reduced interest rate in accordance with Art. 31a para. 1 StromVV is lawful. The request of the appellants to use the higher interest rate in accordance with Art. 31a para. 2 StromVV is unfounded and is to be rejected.
  • The limitation of the operationally necessary net working capital to half a month's turnover is not to be objected to.

The matter is remanded to ElCom so that it can recalculate the 2009 grid usage tariffs for grid level 1 based on the corrected allowable operating and capital costs of the second appellant.

Considerations

In its judgment, the Federal Supreme Court has legally considered the following

The synthetic method for determining the acquisition and production costs in accordance with Art. 13 para. 4 StromVV is an exceptional method that is only permissible if the historical values can no longer be determined. Grid operators must demonstrate the prerequisites for the application of this method. A certain reduction of the synthetically calculated values is justified, but the deduction of 20.5% made by ElCom proved to be too high.

The additional flat-rate deduction of 20% in accordance with Art. 13 para. 4…