Initiative generated savings of US$300 million in 2022 and reduced the risk of environmental disasters, benefiting approximately one million people

 

PSR was the winner of the 2024 FICO Decisions Awards in the category of ESG. The award is for a project that generated savings of US$300 million (around R$1.5 billion) to Mexico, in 2022, based on the improvement of its electrical system. Additionally, the project significantly reduced the risk of environmental disasters in the state of Tabasco, benefiting approximately one million inhabitants in the region. The winners were announced in February by FICO, a global analytics software provider, which chose PSR from among dozens of candidates. The award is scheduled for April at FICO World 2024, in San Diego, USA.

The award-winning project adopted a probabilistic approach to improve the management of Mexico’s water resources, using analytical tools developed by PSR that use the FICO XPRESS optimization package. This contributed significantly to preventing major floods, while expanding the production of clean electrical energy and strengthening socio-environmental security.

In 2021, the National Energy Control Center (CENACE), the entity responsible for coordinating and operating the Mexican electrical system, contracted a set of analytical solutions developed by PSR to carry out integrated planning for the expansion and operation of the country’s electrical system. Key objectives included improving Mexico’s electrical system and managing water in hydroelectric reservoirs, especially those that play a crucial role in preventing floods in vulnerable regions, such as the state of Tabasco.

The analytical tools used deal with various sources of uncertainty, such as inflow volume, renewable energy generation, energy demand and fuel costs. The adoption of these solutions allows, for example, an optimization under uncertainty of adequate storage levels in the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants, essential for coordinating the use of water for energy production and other uses, while meeting environmental restrictions and preventing flooding.

With PSR’s analytical tools, it is possible to estimate the ideal volume of current hydroelectric production to ensure a long-term sustainable energy supply, reducing costs and minimizing environmental risks.

“Mexico has a large and highly complex electrical system. The economic results obtained, in practice, are just another demonstration that our tools are prepared to deal with the most varied operational and technological challenges at a global level”, says Raphael Chabar, Executive Director, Optimization and Analytics at PSR.

The set of PSR computational models acquired by CENACE for expansion and operation planning in Mexico includes SDDP (medium and long-term operation planning under uncertainty), OptGen (generation expansion planning), NCP (scheduling of short-term operation) and NetPlan (transmission expansion planning).

The FICO Decisions Awards are a FICO initiative to recognize organizations for exceptional results achieved in the innovative use of FICO solutions to solve complex business problems, improve customer experiences, mitigate risks, and optimize decision-making processes. In this year’s edition, 18 companies were awarded, four of which were Brazilian. Find out more about the awards at the link: https://www.fico.com/blogs/2024-fico-decisions-awards-winners.