Cosern is a company in the electric sector operating in the generation and distribution of clean and renewable energy. It is controlled by the Neoenergia group. Basically, Neoenergia owns five distributors:
Neoenergia Coelba, in Bahia;
Neoenergia Celpe, in Pernambuco;
Neoenergia Cosern, in Rio Grande do Norte;
Neoenergia Elektro, in São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul;
Neoenergia Distribuição Brasília, in the Federal District.
In total, Neoenergia is present in 18 Brazilian states and the Federal District, operating through distribution, transmission, generation (conventional and renewable), and commercialization of energy.
Neoenergia Cosern is considered the sixth largest electric energy distributor in the Northeast in terms of number of customers and the fifth in volume of energy supplied.
It is present in 167 municipalities in Rio Grande do Norte and serves over 3.5 million inhabitants in a concession area of 52,811 square kilometers. Of the 1.3 million customers the company has, 86% are residential customers.
Cosern has an installed capacity of 1,581 MVA that passes through 65 substations, 51,834 km of distribution lines, and 2,450 km of transmission lines. In addition, the company has 26 service stores, 146 accredited network points, and 1,499 collection agents.
The history of Cosern began on December 14, 1961. It was created through State Law No. 2,721 and regulated by State Decree No. 3,878 of January 8, 1962.
It was authorized to operate as an electric energy company through Federal Decree No. 1,302 of August 3, 1962.
Thus, Cosern was born as a state-owned company and remained so until 1997, when it was privatized on the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange and acquired by a consortium formed by Neoenergia Coelba, Guarania S.A, and UPTICK Participações S.A.
In the year 2000, the purchase of the Energy Company of the State of Pernambuco (Celpe) occurred through a privatization auction for 1.8 billion reais. In 2003, the company bought 42% of the shares of Itapebi, which belonged to Coelba.
In 2004, the company underwent a restructuring and the holding company Neoenergia was created.
The company's expansion process through the acquisition of other companies and the inauguration of works continued, but now under the command of Neoenergia.
For example, in 2010 the company acquired control of 10% of the operations of UHE Belo Horizonte, in the Xingu River, in Pará.
In 2011, we can highlight the operation of the Narandiba substation, the start of commercial operation of UHE Dardanelos, and the right to manage and construct Extremoz II.
Subsequently, in 2013, the works of Baixo Iguaçu began, the commercial operation of the Mel and Arizona 1 wind farms started, and the sale of UTE Termoaçu to Petrobras was completed.
In 2014, the hiring of six new wind farms occurred, and in 2015, the operations of Extremoz II began. In 2016, the complete commercial operation of UHE Teles Pires began, and in 2017, the incorporation of Elektro Holding and its subsidiaries took place.
In 2018, Neoenergia, the parent company of Cosern, went public on the stock exchange.
In 2020, Cosern launched Conexão Digital, which has three pillars: modernization of the customer journey, integrated development of digital solutions, and digital inclusion. Among the initiatives available so far, we can mention:
Creation of a virtual assistant for Facebook and Whatsapp;
Self-reading service;
Debt negotiation platform;
Use of facial recognition to request a new energy connection;
Possibility to pay bills with Pix and receive invoices via Whatsapp.
In other words, the company has launched and intends to launch many innovations to make life easier for customers.
In 2021, Neoenergia became the official sponsor of the Brazilian women's football team.
Additionally, still in 2021, Neoenergia invested in the construction of new Distribution Centers (CDs) for Cosern and Coelba. In summary, the CDs are aimed at the storage and distribution of various items, such as cables and transformers.
