On 22 February 2008, Alpiq and its partners in Monthey (VS) laid the foundation stone for a new industrial power station. The investment volume for this efficient heat/power cogeneration plant is around CHF 100 million. Some 80 guests took up the invitation from Olten – including representatives of Kraftanlagen München, the town of Monthey and the canton of Valais.

Guests were greeted by a brilliant blue sky and exceptionally mild temperatures for the time of year. The Cimo brass band lent a musical backdrop to the ceremony.

In his welcoming address, Alpiq CEO Giovanni Leonardi outlined the benefits of the new plant. One of the most compelling benefits in his view was the ability of the new heat/power cogeneration plant to convert 80 percent of primary energy to heat and electricity for consumption. He expressed the hope that this foundation laying ceremony would resonate throughout Switzerland, giving rise to further large and small thermal power plants.

Fernand Mariétan, Mayor of Monthey, and State Councillor Thomas Burgener, Director of the Energy Department of Valais, also expressed their best wishes for the project. Along with Giovanni Leonardi and Hanspeter Diethelm, project manager at Alpiq, they laid the symbolic foundation stone – the container held construction plans, the signed declaration of foundation, and a daily newspaper.

Background information

The new power plant, with a thermal capacity of 43 MW and an electrical capacity of 55 MW, will replace part of the older energy supply facilities of Cimo (Compagnie industrielle de Monthey SA), and will generate 466,000 tonnes of steam and 456 Gigawatt hours of electricity per year. The steam as well as some of the electrical energy will be supplied to Cimo for the three chemical companies Ciba SC, Syngenta and Huntsman, with any surplus electricity being fed into the local medium-voltage grid. Alpiq has been operating two gas-fired combined-cycle power stations along very similar lines for more than three years, in conjunction with two chemical companies in Northern Italy.

Alpiq founded a new subsidiary, Monthel SA, for the construction and operation of the new power plant. The estimated investment in this project is around CHF 100 million. A customer as well as a supplier (i.e. an industrial partner) of Monthel, Cimo will also be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the heat/power cogeneration plant. The commune of Monthey granted the construction permit for the power station on 4 April 2007. Kraftanlagen München GmbH, an Alpiq Group company, is responsible for the turnkey implementation of this project.