Fig. 1 shows a schematic of the proposed systemic methodology. It establishes baseline scenarios that reflect the inertia of historical behavior, updating variables trends, such as population growth, number of customers, and consumption per customer.
Electricity sales or consumption were estimated using regression models over the historical evolution of each sector in each geographic region for the projection of the next 10, 15, or 20 years. These results were compared with per-capita consumption, and their growth was shown to modulate, especially in the residential and industrial sectors, which most affect the system.
The annual electric energy required is evaluated by adding electricity used in generation and losses of the electrical system to electricity sales. This value is utilized to calculate the annual average demand, and the historical behavior of the system gives the ratio between the average demand and peak demand. The required generating capacity is calculated by adding a capacity reserve, for maintenance and units failures, to the peak demand. A comparison of this generation capacity with the installed capacity is evaluated, and the need to install new plants and/or exchange energy with other systems is determined.