EPIS Releases New Version of AURORAxmp LAS VEGAS

LAS VEGAS, April 25, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EPIS ( www.epis.com ),  the market leader in power market simulation, forecasting and analysis, announced the release of version 12.3 of its AURORAxmp software at the Platts Global Power Markets ^TM Conference . The latest version boasts a number of enhancements to storage logic, ancillary services, long-term logic, improved RPS modeling and nodal capabilities.

AURORAxmp 12.3 further solidifies its position as the most valuable power market forecasting and analysis software on the market today. It is fast, easy to use, and transparent. Upgrades in the new version include:

• Enhanced Storage Logic —improved ability to model the intricacies of renewable and storage integration, electric vehicles, and other technologies. 
• Ancillary Services Enhancements —significant enhancements, including sub-hourly dispatch and use in nodal studies, and improved MW reporting for simultaneous contributions to multiple products
• Improved RPS Modeling —offers new option to identify resources not eligible to set capacity prices—especially useful when modeling RPS policies where renewable resources must be built but cannot participate in capacity markets. Also, RPS constraints can now be input as a percentage of demand or MWh value, giving more flexibility to specifying RPS targets over time.
• Long-Term (LT) Capacity Expansion Logic Enhancements —now have the option to change dispatch-hour sampling dynamically—accelerating studies, but still providing detail on final production run.
• New LT Constraint Types —including capacity and energy max limits, which provide more flexibility for build decisions to targets in LT studies.
• New LT Reporting Option —new build report output table making it helpful to quickly see which constraints were binding (min, max by technology/fuel/area).
• Nodal SCUC —version 12.3 also includes an exciting new option to run a full security constrained unit commitment (SCUC). The mixed-integer program that performs the commitment decisions now accounts for nodal constraints, including branch, corridor, and contingency constraints.  The new SCUC ability is in addition to a new, proprietary solving method that significantly speeds nodal analysis.

AURORAxmp v.12.3 is further enhanced by the proven and calibrated databases that either come with the license or as an add-on, including: U.S.-Canada, Europe or Mexico. The calibrated datasets simplify meaningful forecasting. All AURORAxmp databases include a base-case 25-year power price forecast and generator capacity expansion and retirement plan. The sources and procedures used to update the data are thoroughly documented. Updates to the databases are provided under the annual AURORAxmp license.

For the past 20 years, AURORAxmp has had a reputation for being best-in-class, with unmatched support. Version 12.3 further establishes its position as the leader in power market forecasting and analysis.

About EPIS EPIS, LLC ( www.epis.com ) is the developer of AURORAxmp , the leading-edge software for forecasting wholesale power market prices. The company also provides ready-to-use data for the United States-Canada, Europe, and Mexico.  The company delivers unrivaled customer support to its growing body of customers worldwide and, on average, adds a new enhancement to AURORAxmp, based on customer feedback and/or market changes, every week. A variety of organizations-including utilities (large and small), independent power producers (IPPs), developers, traders, energy consultants, regulatory agencies and universities-use AURORAxmp to model power system dispatch and the formation of both nodal and zonal wholesale power prices, and to perform a wide range of associated analytics over the short- and long-term. AURORAxmp is a comprehensive solution to power market modeling needs. Offices are located in Salt Lake City, UT, Tigard, OR and Sandpoint, ID.