The story
Société électrique Vevey-Montreux SA (SEVM)
In 1878, Adolphe Dupraz and Henri Chaudet first applied to the canton for a concession to operate the Baye de Montreux, a stream that flows from the Rochers de Naye to the town of Montreux. The two entrepreneurs wanted to create an electric tramway line between Vevey and Montreux. The line, initially linking Vevey to Chillon and inaugurated on 4 June 1888, would later become the Vevey-Montreux-Chillon-Villeneuve (VMCV).
To power the line, the first power plant was built at Taulan, above Montreux. It was operated by Société électrique Vevey-Montreux SA, also founded in 1886. The following year, the plant produced enough power to install public lighting in the towns of Vevey and Montreux.
In 1888, the Grand Hôtel in Territet became the first public building in French-speaking Switzerland (and the second in the country) to be lit entirely by electricity. Barely two years later, growing demand prompted SEVM to build a new power station near the hamlet of Sonzier, also supplied by the Baye de Montreux, which was diverted into a new reservoir developed for the occasion. In 1898, the SEVM commissioned the Tramway de Trait – Planches.
Meanwhile, a second electric company was founded in Aigle in 1895, the Société des forces motrices de la Grande-Eau (SFMGE), which, as its name suggests, used in particular the waters of the Grande Eau. In 1901, the SFMGE created the Vouvry plant, which used water from Lac de Taney.
Initially competing with each other, the two companies merged on 3 January 1904, to become Société romande d'électricité, a mixed company whose capital of 4.2 million francs was mostly privately owned (including, in particular, industrialist James Edouard Aguet). The new company quickly launched several projects, including the creation of a new plant in Aigle (the future Les Farettes plant) and improvements to those in Vouvry and Taulan.
Forces motrices des lacs de Joux et de l'Orbe
On 22 May 1901, the Grand Council of the canton of Vaud issued a decree establishing the Compagnie vaudoisedes Forces motrices des lacs de Joux et de l'Orbe (FMJ, colloquially known as "Compagnie de Joux" or "Forces de Joux") with the dual aim of regulating the water levels of Lac de Joux, Lac Brenet and the Orbe, and using these reservoirs to generate and distribute electricity. Two years later, the La Dernier plant was commissioned, followed in 1908 by the Montcherand-sur-Orbe plant. Between them, these plants distributed up to 45 million kWh in 1928 over a large part of Vaud and even part of the canton of Neuchâtel.
Faced with insufficient rainfall during the winter of 1942, the military department imposed restrictions on electricity consumption. The company decided to build a new pumping station to artificially transfer water from Lac de Joux to Lac Brenet, to ensure that the hydraulic plants between the two lakes could operate continuously.
On 28 June 1954, the company was renamed Compagnie vaudoise d'électricité (CVE). Following this name change, the Grand Council renewed the concession for 80 years and added a concession for a new power plant. This new plant, built underground below Lignerolle, was powered by a new dam at Le Day; it was to be known as the Les Clées plant and replaced an earlier plant, commissioned in 1896, which was finally abandoned in 1955.
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Creation of Romande Énergie
As early as 1917, discussions began between the two main electricity production companies in the canton of Vaud (Société romande d'électricité and Compagnie de Joux) to merge the two entities. This first attempt failed a year later when SRE withdrew from the project. In 1919, however, the two companies found themselves both shareholders in the new Énergie Ouest Suisse, created "to ensure the rational and intensive use of the region's hydraulic forces" at the instigation of Jean Landry (who presided over the company from its inception until 1940).
In 1993, SRE was faced with major financial difficulties following real estate transactions linked to one of its subsidiaries (Taulan SA). CVE became the majority shareholder on 14 October, and a process of rapprochement gradually began between the two companies, under the name of the "CVE-SRE Group". As a result of this process, on 24 June 1997, the shareholders of both companies decided to merge under the name of "Romande Énergie SA", with CVE becoming the group's umbrella company; in 2006, it changed its name to Romande Énergie Holding. At the time of the merger, 40% of the new group's capital was held by the canton of Vaud, 30% by the communes of Vaud, and 30% by private shareholders, by the 1951 decree setting out the shares vested in the public authorities.
In 2008, the company divested itself of its public transport activities, with the Vevey-Montreux-Chillon-Villeneuve network now operated by a specially-created public limited company under the same name, whose capital is held by the communes served, the latter transferring their shares in SEVM to the parent company.
From Wikipedia’s article on Romande Énergie, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4