The objective of this paper is to analyse the oxidation of acetylene under nanosecond pulsed N-2/O-2 discharges generated in a complex multi-pin-to-plane (MPP) corona reactor in the frame of Yan's generic chemical kinetic model. We made use of the results obtained from the detailed kinetic model published previously (Redolfi et al. in Plasma Chem Plasma Process 29(3):173-195, 2009) in order to propose a global reactor models based on Yan's generic chemical model and taking into account the non-homogeneous and non-stationary character of the discharges. This enables us expressing the energy cost in terms of physical and kinetic parameters of the discharge. We checked the model validity by comparing predicted and measured energy cost-values for acetylene in MPP reactor. The methodology presented may be adapted to predict the energy cost in other complex corona reactor provided the model parameters are determined experimentally.