PSR’s participation reinforces its role as a provider of solutions for the operation and planning of the Mexican electricity sector

The RVP-AI/ROC&C’2024, the main event of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) organization in Mexico, was held between July 21 and 25 in the city of Acapulco.

CENACE, the operator of the Mexican electricity system, invited PSR to participate in the event, more specifically in the Electrical Systems Planning and Operation Program, organized by the institution. Six plenary presentations were given by PSR experts on different topics relevant to the Mexican electricity sector that PSR has been working on:

• Results of the study on generation expansion in Mexico (Bruno Peixoto)
• Development of a 2050 vision for SIEPAC (Silvio Binato)
• Integration of Machine Learning and stochastic optimization for the planning and operation of electricity systems under climate extremes (Mario Veiga, remote)
• Flexible transmission planning (Amanda Fernandes and Gabriel Provenzano)
• Optimization of maintenance of generation assets (João Pedro Bastos)
• Integrated planning of energy sectors under uncertainty (Lucas Guerreiro)

The diversity of topics presented by PSR, all of which are important in the context of the Mexican electricity sector, illustrates the role played by the company in the country over the last few years. Since the reform of the Mexican electricity sector in 2014, PSR has had a strong presence in Mexico, providing services to public, private and multilateral institutions. In 2021, PSR became the official provider of power system planning and operation models for CENACE, including the SDDP (stochastic hydrothermal dispatch with grid constraints), NCP (short-term operation scheduling), OptGen (generation expansion planning), and NetPlan (transmission expansion planning) tools. The benefits of using PSR’s tools were already evident in 2022, resulting in savings of US$300 million for the country and an international award for PSR. In 2023 and 2024, PSR conducted generation and transmission expansion planning studies, respectively, in conjunction with CENACE, and new collaborations are expected in the coming years.

“It is a great satisfaction for our team to witness the incorporation of the tools and methodologies developed by PSR into CENACE’s planning and operation procedures and, even more so, to verify the economic and environmental gains they provide. We also highlight CENACE’s technical competence and agility in internalizing new procedures for the benefit of the system and the Mexican society,” emphasizes João Pedro Bastos, head of the international studies area at PSR.