Norwegian power company Statkraft has signed three additional power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Valeco, for five year duration, for a total wind power capacity of 40.5MW in France.

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Image: Premont wind farm in France. Photo: Courtesy of Valeco.

As part of these agreements, Statkraft will purchase power and capacity certificates from the wind farms including Audincthun with 14.1MW, Belleuse with 11MW and Lavacquerie with 15.4MW.

Statkraft France business developer Clément Perchat said: “We are very pleased to strengthen our partnership with Valeco, a key contributor to the energy transition in France, by concluding together three new power purchase agreements.”

These wind farms are expected to be commissioned in May and September this year and they will be located in the Pas de Calais, Somme and Oise departments, respectively. Valeco will operate the wind farms from Montpellier.

Perchat continued saying: “Valeco was one of our first customers in France as we already provide a full market access solution for their Prémont wind farm. With these new purchase agreements, recognised by the main financing banks, Statkraft contributes to the financing of new installations and facilitates the further expansion of renewable power in France.”

Statkraft stated that it will integrate these installations in its balancing group and will control them remotely, for automatic down regulation of production during negative price events.

Valeco electricity sale in charge Clémence Charlot said: “Direct selling of electricity to power markets is one of our new businesses for 18 months. We have various partners for the aggregation business. However, with the conclusion of these three new contracts, Statkraft becomes our main partner. Our first wind farm is being operated by Statkraft under a power purchase agreement since summer 2018 and we are fully satisfied with their job.”

“To pursue the full integration of renewable power plants into the electricity markets, our ambition for 2019 is to sign a first corporate PPA. Regarding Statkraft’s broad experience in this matter, we also plan to start discussions on this topic.”

Recently, the company signed 10 year PPA with Spanish electricity supplier Fortia Energia to supply 3TWh of clean power. The company will be supplying renewable power to large industrial customers in the country.