PSR, a leader in the development of analytical tools for the electricity sector and energy consulting, has just launched version 5.27 of NCP, an optimal short-term dispatch model, mainly applied in scheduling daily or weekly dispatches with the aim of minimizing costs or maximizing sales revenues for the market. Well known as a global reference, NCP has more than 100 active licenses by companies and operators around the world.

In this new version, functionalities related to the ancillary services market in Mexico were incorporated, a development of the contract signed by PSR in December 2021 with the National Energy Control Center of Mexico (Cenace) and which involved the provision of computational models for Mexico’s expansion and operation planning. The new version of NCP allows, for example, the optimal dispatch for the weekly planning of the Mexican system, containing around 9 thousand circuits.

“We have incorporated all the new features of the Mexican ancillary services market into the model. Reserve sales offers were already represented in other countries in Central America and Turkey, for example, but the Mexican environment is more in line with what is practiced in the American and European markets,” explains engineer André Dias, coordinator of model development, training and support in PSR’s short-term operation area.

Ancillary Services

Ancillary services involve a variety of operations on the electrical grids that are necessary to balance supply and demand across all time scales, maintaining voltage and frequency within safe limits and avoiding overloading the grid infrastructure. This is done by maintaining a combination of services that provide stability, efficiency and security to the system.

Ancillary services markets are responsible for energy allocation and operational reserves. Thus, all generators, including hydroelectric, thermoelectric, renewable and even batteries, can make individual offers for each reservation, defining minimum and maximum quantities permitted with the respective chronological prices offered.

Other Enhancements

Version 5.27 of NCP also brings other improvements, including gas emission restrictions, connection of hydroelectric units to the transmission grid, generator group reserve offers, and no-load thermal operation costs.

NCP also offers advanced data visualization and processing tools. The model produces more than 250 detailed reports, integrated with PSRIO, which allows the user to transform, analyze and visualize data to assist in decision-making through an intuitive language.

A full description of all features available in this release can be found here: