Case Study: Gas Natural Fenosa achieves faster, more accurate energy forecasting and optimized trading margins with MathWorks

Gas Natural Fenosa Predicts Energy Supply and Demand

Gas Natural Fenosa, the largest integrated gas and electricity company in Spain and Latin America with more than 13,000 MW of generation capacity, needed to maximize margins in wholesale energy trading by accurately predicting next-day prices, demand, and available supply. Because electricity cannot be stored and market/regulatory conditions change quickly, the company required an open, flexible platform rather than closed commercial software—so it turned to MathWorks and products including MATLAB, Simulink, MATLAB Compiler, Optimization Toolbox, and Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox.

Using MathWorks tools, Gas Natural Fenosa built forecasting and optimization models that pull historical usage, weather forecasts, plant constraints, and market rules from a central database; Optimization Toolbox solves linear programming for least-cost dispatch, Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox supports price simulations and VaR, Simulink models generator behavior, and MATLAB Compiler produces automated standalone programs. The MathWorks-based solution cut response time from months to about one to two weeks for regulatory or market changes, doubled developer productivity, and simplified program maintenance.

Gas Natural Fenosa

Angel Caballero

Forward Operations, Iberian Power Markets