With effect from 14th April 2021, the Indian Energy Exchange has started using the N-SIDE Power Matching Solution to determine the daily price and traded volume of electricity in its Day Ahead Market. IEX expects to benefit from N-SIDE's Power Matching Solution as it enables the power exchange to respond to the rapid growth of the Indian Energy market. After deploying and continuously improving a solution for the European market for more than 10 years, N-SIDE’s Power Matching Solution is now being used to benefit the Indian energy market.

As a Belgian scale-up founded in 2000, N-SIDE has seen significant growth over the past years. The company combines advanced analytics, software development and business expertise to create innovative technologies and algorithms that have a positive impact on businesses and people around the world. N-SIDE develops Artificial Intelligence software as a service, but also provides tailor-made solutions to meet specific business needs of customers.

Today, N-SIDE is an international organization with offices in Belgium and the US. Earlier this year, the company announced a capital increase of 10 million euros to accelerate the development of innovative solutions and encourage the international growth of the company. In the next chapter of this growth story, N-SIDE has started to support the expanding energy market of India.

With a share of 95%, IEX is India’s premier energy marketplace. In February of this year, IEX registered a year-on-year growth in volume of 50%. As more Indian citizens need access to electricity and the market is becoming increasingly complex, the trade platform was looking for a modern solution to determine wholesale electricity market prices.

Building on its existing solution, which is based on Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP), N-SIDE has provided a solution that meets the expectations and needs of IEX. The algorithm went live on the IEX platform in April and is now running every day to support 70% electricity trade on such markets.

From Europe to India

One of the reasons why India’s leading energy exchange IEX has turned to N-SIDE for this solution, is the company’s experience with the even more complex European energy market. To calculate day-ahead electricity prices across Europe and allocate cross-border transmission capacity on a daily basis, N-SIDE has developed a unique algorithm, Euphemia, that is now being used in 26 countries. The solution excels because of its high performance and robustness and has become a crucial aspect of the EU target to reach a harmonized European electricity market. The experience with Europe has convinced IEX that N-SIDE was the right partner to develop an algorithm for the growing Indian market.

“N-SIDE Power Matching Solution is a powerful solution to ensure that electricity supply and demand are matched in an optimal way, leading to maximal social welfare. Furthermore, as a scalable solution, our technology is perfectly suited to support the fast market growth in India”, says Olivier Devolder, Energy Director at N-SIDE.

Competitive electricity prices for citizens

Power exchange can be a very complex matter, but N-SIDE’s algorithm always finds the most optimal solution given the available resolution time. The N-SIDE’s Solution increases the efficiency of the Indian energy market as it makes it easy to offer complex bid types to suit the changing needs of the market.

S N Goel, Chairman & Managing Director, IEX, “IEX has been at the forefront of energy transformation in India. With technology and customer centricity being at the core of our efforts to evolve the Indian energy markets, we have always been one step ahead in adopting and integrating the world class solutions in emerging technologies. Our partnership with N-SIDE has been the result of this constant quest for innovation and technology excellence. Through N-SIDE’s globally acclaimed algorithm solution for power markets, we have been able to offer complex bid types to our market participants. This will indeed support Indian industries and the distribution utilities in further optimizing their power procurement costs and in turn, also improve electricity affordability for their end-customers.”

Since the go-live mid-April, N-SIDE’s Power Matching Solution has become a successful solution that is being used to discover the price in the Day Ahead Market. For the duration of the contract signed with IEX, the N-SIDE team is responsible for implementation & operations, license, and support & maintenance. In the coming years, the algorithm will also be constantly improved by the mathematical experts and software engineers at N-SIDE.

N-SIDE remains extremely ambitious to expand its scope even further with power exchanges or other actors in regions outside of Europe and India. “We believe N-SIDE can really help countries around the world to tackle the challenges of their energy market. On top of our acceleration in Europe and India, we are currently looking for new opportunities in Asia and North America”, concludes Olivier Devolder.

About N-Side

N-SIDE is an innovative software consulting company in advanced analytics designing optimization solutions for Life Sciences and Energy management. From the strategic to the operational level, we leverage the value of data and organizational knowledge to drive efficiency through optimization of processes and resource use. Our bespoke cloud solutions are based on cutting-edge technologies like machine learning and powerful algorithms to solve the most complex challenges and turn them into opportunities. In the pharmaceutical sector, we optimize the supply chain and production of clinical trials. In the energy sector, we support system operators, power exchanges, and market participants in the challenges related to the energy transition.

N-SIDE is ranked # 5 in the Best Workplace ™ of the Great Place to Work® Institute Belgium in companies with less than 500 employees. True to its commitment, N-SIDE intends to distinguish itself among companies where the desire to work for a more sustainable world is the priority.

N-SIDE is certified B Corporation ™, issued by B Lab. We adhere to strict standards in terms of social and environmental performance, transparency, and the balance between profit and objectives.

To find out more, visit our website www.n-side.com