Partner 16: AET

Azienda Elettrica Ticinese (AET) is the power company for the Swiss canton of Ticino, based in Bellinzona (Switzerland). AET is a small autonomous commercial organization established in 1958 to exploit local hydropower resources and secure power supply for Ticino. It is a wholesaler on the Swiss, German, and French and Italian markets.

AET’s core businesses are the production, transmission—over a 420km high voltage network—and trading of electrical power. AET produces about 1.6 and trades 6 TWh/y of energy.  The company especially leverages its five hydropower plants (221 MW) located in the Ticino river basin. AET’s customers are mainly power distribution companies in Ticino, and AET sells its remaining energy on national and international markets. AET currently counts 160 employees. The Canton of Ticino is minor owner of further small hydropower companies, including the Verzasca SA, and AET have a mandate to commercialise the production of energy.



Dr. Giorgio Tognola (born in 1967) is an Electrical Engineer. He completed in 1992 a master study Electrical Engineer at the Swiss Federal institute of Technology of Zürich and owns a PhD of the Swiss Federal institute of Technology of Zürich as a Doctor of Sciences. He is currently member of the direction of AET and is co responsible for the Trading and Sales Division. This task included the lead of the Middle and Back Office team and the management of AET energy portfolio. His employment record began in 1998 at the hydropower company EGL, where he worked for 1.5 years as a manager of power flows at the European scale. At EGL he also contributed to studies related to the computation of the economic value of high voltage networks and to further activities related to the implementation of risk management tools to monitoring the energy portfolio of EGL.