CRE Technology: Genset paralleling, mains, hybrid and battery controllers made in France

Overview

CRE Technology dates its history to 1980, when Carburation Régulation Electronique was set up on the Côte d'Azur, according to the company history. The French business register still lists that original company, Carburation et Régulation Electronique (CRE), with a creation date of 1 January 1980 (SIREN 317 841 542). For its first fourteen years it supplied analogue, then digital, paralleling solutions; in 1994 it developed its first proprietary module, the C2S synchronising column, and in 1996 its first controller, the GCR, for paralleling several gensets with the mains.

The all-in-one GENSYS controller followed in 2000 and the GENSYS 2.0 range in 2007, which CRE says has been used across five continents and still covers in its training courses. The company added battery chargers in 2012, launched the COMPACT range in 2016, colour i4Gen displays in 2018, the second-generation COMPACT range in 2019, COMPACT controllers for renewable energy in 2022 and the i4Gen II displays with a remote-control box in 2024. The present operating company, CRE Technology SARL in Biot, was registered on 11 February 2006 (SIREN 488 625 583).

What sets CRE apart is the modular way it builds a plant: one COMPACT controller per source or breaker, for gensets, mains incomers, tie breakers, PV or wind inverters and battery inverters, linked over CAN and programmed with the same free software. The GENSYS COMPACT PRIME product sheet allows up to 40 controllers in one plant and 32 gensets in parallel. CRE says it has installed more than 100,000 controllers worldwide and markets its products as made in France, a point its distributor in the United Arab Emirates says matters to customers in a market with copies and grey imports. The company is small: the business register places it in the 10 to 19 employee band.

Offering

COMPACT controllers

The COMPACT range is CRE's current line, each model in a switchboard version with display or a DIN-rail core version:

• GENSYS COMPACT PRIME controls one genset with synchronising, active and reactive load sharing and engine and electrical protection, and combines with others for plants of up to 32 gensets in parallel.
• GENSYS COMPACT MAINS runs one genset paralleled with one mains incomer, and AMF COMPACT is the economical controller for a single standby genset without paralleling, including auto-start use.
• MASTER COMPACT and MASTER COMPACT 1B manage mains incomers for plants of 1 to 32 gensets in parallel with the grid, with two breakers or one, and BTB COMPACT handles up to 32 bus tie breakers.
• HYBRID COMPACT controls PV or wind inverters, limiting their output to prevent reverse power on gensets and to manage grid import and export, and BAT COMPACT controls battery inverters' charge, discharge and reactive power.

Together they cover island, mains backup, mains paralleling and hybrid plants, which CRE groups as hybrid and microgrid controllers. The previous GENSYS 2.0 and MASTER 2.0 controllers are listed as old products.

Displays, remote access and chargers

The i4Gen colour touch displays (7, 10 or 15 inch) supervise up to 40 COMPACT controllers over Ethernet and draw the plant's single-line diagram automatically. The i4Gen Box adds remote supervision and control through Zoho Assist, email and SMS alerts, Ethernet, Wi-Fi or 4G, and GPS location. CRE also sells battery chargers for genset starting batteries, from compact BPR units to BPCOM chargers with Modbus monitoring.

Software, services and sales

Configuration is through the front panel, the i4Gen or the free i4Gen Suite 2 software. CRE offers pre-studies, design, commissioning and retrofits, technical support by phone, email, ticket and on-site visits, and training courses in Biot in French and English. Products are sold through quotes, directly and through its distributor network; prices are not published.

Technology

Interfaces on the COMPACT controllers

The GENSYS COMPACT PRIME product sheet (document index I2025) describes the hardware shared by the range. There are two isolated CAN ports: CAN 1 carries CRE's own protocol between COMPACT controllers, and CAN 2 serves SAE J1939 engine ECUs, CANopen I/O extensions or MTU MDEC. An isolated Ethernet port is used for the PC software, Modbus TCP and remote monitoring. There is no RS-485 port. The on-board Modbus TCP server lets other devices read and write the controller's registers, with 300 registers available for custom mapping, and a Modbus TCP client can build custom frames to read or write third-party devices. On J1939 the controller detects ECU addresses automatically, handles standard frames, up to 10 custom frames and DTC and DPF/SCR frames for Tier 4 Final and Stage V engines, and includes a frame sniffer. CANopen couplers add up to 64 digital inputs, 64 digital outputs and 16 analogue inputs.

The Modbus table (index F-2025) and operator manual (index Q-2025) are public. They document read functions FC01 to FC04 alongside write functions, mark variables 0000 to 1999 as read-only measurements, put Modbus TCP read and write enables in separate bits of register 3015 and allow up to six simultaneous Modbus TCP connections, of which CRE's own tools and displays each use one.

Reading CRE controllers from other systems

Victron Energy's GX manual lists AMF COMPACT, GENSYS COMPACT PRIME and GENSYS COMPACT MAINS among the supported generator controllers. A GX device on Venus OS 3.50 or later reads a CRE controller with firmware 2.0 or later over Modbus TCP on Ethernet and detects it from identification values; it expects oil pressure in bar and temperatures in °C. CRE's own Victron brochure describes two designs from the joint development: a Cerbo GX as system master for one battery system and one genset, and COMPACT controllers as master for larger on-grid or off-grid plants with several gensets, battery systems and PV.

Programming, updates and security

The Easyflex drag-and-drop editor lets users write their own equations, EasyCalib tunes the voltage and speed outputs automatically, and a scheduler runs functions at set times. Firmware and PC software update automatically; i4Gen software updates come only over the internet. Controllers can be duplicated in a master and backup pair. Password management follows complexity and expiry rules, and remote access runs through the third-party Zoho Assist service. The product sheet shows CE, UKCA, cULus and EAC marks, EMC testing to EN 61000-6-2 and 6-4, and an override mode that follows the French NF E 37-312 standard for safety generating sets.

Customers

Hybrid and smart grid projects

At the Pointe des Grives container terminal of the Grand Port Maritime de la Martinique, contractor SEREC integrated six COMPACT controllers: a MASTER COMPACT on the grid connection, a GENSYS COMPACT PRIME on a 1,675 kVA Cummins genset, three HYBRID COMPACT units on PV farms of 700, 600 and 40 kWp with Huawei inverters, and a BAT COMPACT on a 1.4 MW battery system with Sungrow inverters, all on a 690 V bus. The project, led by VALOREM, aims to cover half the terminal's consumption with solar and storage and to keep it running through hurricanes and outages. Other hybrid sites include the Mazana pig breeding centre in Huesca, Spain (February 2025), and an irrigation pumping plant in Tunuyán, Argentina, where a 200 kW genset was combined with two 100 kW PV inverters (July 2025). In Pakistan, representative Fusion Engineering & Technology used CRE controllers to combine grid, diesel and solar power at Paradise Spinning.

Hospitals, industry and data centres

CRE retrofitted the backup power plants of Roanne Hospital for Positif-Veolia in 2025, replacing obsolete CRE UNIGEN+ cards, and of Poissy Intercommunal Hospital Center for ENGIE in 2024, replacing a first-generation GENSYS. For Novartis in Romania, with GENSERV POWER, it automated a pharmaceutical site with two grid connections and a 1,000 kW genset (January 2026). A data centre in Cavite, Philippines, now parallels five gensets with five GENSYS COMPACT PRIME, five MASTER COMPACT and five BTB COMPACT controllers. In Nicaragua, distributor ND Importaciones built an N+1 standby system for a BANPRO bank site and trained the technicians of Caterpillar dealer NIMAC on AMF COMPACT and i4Gen Suite 2.

Markets

CRE sells from Biot through a network of distributors and agents. Its network page lists 30 distributors and agents, plus the Biot headquarters, covering Africa (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Guinea, Niger), North and South America (Canada, the United States, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic), Asia and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, the UAE, India, Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam), Europe (Belgium, Croatia, Spain, France, Greece, the Isle of Man, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, the UK, Slovenia) and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand).

Distributors

Recent partner profiles on CRE's blog describe HB Technologie, its Benelux distributor since 2017, which also covers the UK, Germany and parts of Northern Europe and has used CRE controllers in more than 50 projects, including CHP in greenhouses; Lasting Power Generation, exclusive distributor in the UAE, with about 100 gensets and projects; Protective Power Systems & Controls of Staatsburg, New York, distributor in the United States, which chose CRE in part because the products meet UL and CSA standards; Sintegra Solutions in Slovenia from October 2025; and Elgen Automation of Johor Bahru, Malaysia, which covers Southeast Asia and lists CRE's controllers and chargers on its own site.

Segments

CRE's case studies span civil, industrial, marine, military, power plant, hospital, agriculture, telecom and data centre sites. Its paralleling controllers serve both standby and prime power plants, and since 2022 the range has added PV, wind and battery control for hybrid plants, including the joint designs with Victron Energy. The homepage shows the logos of companies such as EDF, Rehlko, Socomec, Atlas Copco, Cummins, FG Wilson, Himoinsa, Pramac, Equinix, Naval Group and Orange under "They trust us".

Company

Legal entity

The operating company is CRE Technology, a SARL with share capital of €500,000, registered at the Antibes trade register under number 488 625 583 and based at 130 Allée Charles Victor Naudin, Les Templiers, 06410 Biot, in the Sophia Antipolis technology park, according to its legal notice. The French business register records its creation on 11 February 2006, its activity as wholesale of electronic components, a workforce in the 10 to 19 employee band (2024), and Mickaël Ferrando as gérant (register record). The original Carburation et Régulation Electronique, created in 1980 and registered in Mougins, is a separate legal entity in the same register. The company does not publish its shareholders or financial statements on its website.

People

William Ferrando is the publication manager named in the legal notice. Richard Hamon is the headquarters contact on the network page. The company says it went through a significant restructuring in recent years that improved its productivity and the reliability of its products (about page).

Quality and training

CRE states that it holds ISO 9001, for more than ten years, and ISO 14001. It runs an in-house training centre with a teaching power plant and automatic test tools, and the business register lists it as a Qualiopi-certified training provider, so French customers can have training funded through their OPCO.