CNR and energy & meteo systems have signed a contract to remote control solar and wind power plants in France

Lyon/Oldenburg, 27 June 2019 – CNR, the first French producer of exclusively renewable energy, and energy & meteo systems, a leading provider of renewable power forecasting and virtual power plant services, have signed a contract in order to stop and restart wind and solar power plants in case of negative prices. The virtual power plant will support CNR in profitably marketing renewable power in the increasingly dynamic French energy market.

CNR has been an aggregator in France since 2012, successfully marketing the renewable energy production for plant owners including its own assets. "Along with the expansion of the French renewable energy market, we want to continue our growth in this business field. 
In an increasingly dynamic energy market, we need state of the art technology to provide market demands with tailored-answers in short-terms. Renewable assets benefiting from the French new Feed-In-Premium mechanism must be curtailed during strictly negative EPEX Spot prices. CNR offers two options to manage these periods: the curtailment is either operated by the producer or delegated to CNR. With the services of energy & meteo systems, we can automatically curtail solar and wind energy production when negative prices occur," explains Pierre-Jean GRANGETTE, Energy Department Director of CNR.

energy & meteo systems provides the virtual power plant which will connect, monitor and control a set of decentralised power-generating units in CNR direct-marketing portfolio. The platform provides real-time production data of all assets. With its remote-control feature, the platform controls the connected plants and can downregulate them automatically at negative prices. This allows CNR to adjust power production within seconds to market demands and matching it with the traded schedule.

"We are looking forward to our cooperation with CNR," says Dr Ulrich Focken, founder and Managing Director of energy & meteo systems. "We are already providing virtual power plant services to many leading power aggregators in Europe, including France. Through this project with CNR, energy & meteo systems can further demonstrate in the French energy market the efficiency of its technology in managing and trading the production of renewable energy portfolios on day-ahead and intraday markets."

left: Remi Perrin, Assistant Director of the Energy Department, CNR / right: Dr. Varun Gaur, 
Deputy General Manager (Business Development & Partnerships), energy & meteo systems

About CNR
CNR is the leading French producer of 100% renewable electricity (water, wind, sun) and the Rhône river's multiple-use concessionaire, from the Swiss border to the Mediterranean Sea: hydropower production, inland navigation and ports development, irrigation and other agricultural uses. As integrated player at the forefront of the energy business, CNR offers its intermittent energy management and valorisation services and its engineering expertise to third parties in France and in some 30 countries. At the Energy Department, CNR works on forecasting of renewable resources, energy optimization and offers direct marketing solutions to third parties. CNR's share capital is marked by a fine-balance between public (local authorities, Groupe Caisse des Dépôts) and private ownership with ENGIE a major French utility.

About energy & meteo systems GmbH
energy & meteo systems offers services and software products that allow efficient marketing and grid integration of wind and solar energy every hour of the day. The company is a leading international provider of wind and solar power generation forecasting for customers in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia. It is also one of the world's first to deploy virtual power plant software connecting decentralised electricity generators and controllable consumers from a single control centre connecting them into the energy grid and to the various energy markets. energy & meteo systems provides its services to more than 400 GW of installed wind and solar power in around 60 countries.