Turbine Manufacturing
Wind forecasting helps utilities plan for the unexpected
UL provides renewable energy forecasting services for over 70 GW of centralized and distributed wind and solar generation capacity across the world.
Travelers along Indiana’s Interstate 65 are used to farmland with vast swaths of corn, soybeans and wheat dotting the mostly rural landscape. However, newcomers to the north-south route are often surprised when they encounter a farm of a different type—wind farms.
People have harvested the wind for centuries, using its energy to perform tasks such as pumping water, grinding grain and cutting wood. With the development of electric power, wind’s capabilities expanded to lighting buildings and powering machines with simple motors.
Today, wind power is used throughout the world as a viable alternative to coal or nuclear-powered plants. Other methods of energy production include natural gas, water and solar, with each capability playing a supporting role in providing the comforts of the modern world.
A Complex System
Electricity moves through a network of transmission lines, substations and transformers to a series of energy grids, all of which are interconnected for reliability. Grid managers carefully coordinate all the energy produced from their units to ensure a steady stream of electricity to meet the fluctuating demands of consumers.
“When we factor in renewable energy and its natural variances, maintaining the electrical balance between supply and demand on the grid becomes a complicated process,” said John Zack, UL’s global lead of grid solutions.
“The larger problem that we’re trying to solve is to reduce the cost of integrating wind and solar energy into the power grid,” Zack said. “As variable resources, wind and solar have an impact on the electric system because they have non-controllable variations. You don’t know how much wind power or solar power you will have at a given moment, and that causes issues which could add to the cost to ensure supply and demand are balanced at all times.”
Managing the unknown
UL supports wind energy professionals with wind forecasting services. Specializing in resource assessment and prediction, the team has been providing detailed wind information since the late 1990s with real-time forecasts of power production as well as the assessment of larger scale (e.g. seasonal or annual) transient pattern in wind resource via the Wind Trends Bulletin, published since 2010.
“We are trying to forecast for tomorrow, but errors are inherent due to the increased difficulty in wind prediction.” Zack said, “The wind is a lot more variable than say temperature, with sudden fluctuations in a short amount of time.”
To combat the wind’s unpredictability, AWS offers daily forecasts with hourly updates to its clients. Daily outlooks allow a utility company to plan the next day’s energy production schedules, while hourly updates alert customers to unexpected phenomena that could result in a rapid change in wind-based generation. This helps to reduce the cost of using wind-based generation as part of the supply mix.
“An hour ahead is the last chance to get it right and provide grid operators with enough time to address unexpected wind-related issues in balancing electrical supply and demand,” Zack said.
However, the team of atmospheric experts is available to respond to any issue that comes up.
“Customers will call, asking for some advice for an unusual weather pattern they might be having,” Zack said.
And with the winds frequent variations, there’s a good chance the phone will be ringing soon.
-
Events5 years ago
Canada and Turkey women working in the renewable energy sector in met
-
Manufacturers of wind turbines5 years ago
GE’s Haliade-X 12 MW prototype to be installed in Rotterdam
-
Operations and Maintenance6 years ago
GENBA is on the rise; another milestone passed by in global existence
-
Genel8 years ago
EWT launches the DW61, It’s most efficient and high energy producing wind turbine
-
Genel9 years ago
Internet of things will empower the wind energy power plants
-
Turbine Manufacturing6 years ago
İğrek Makina focused on developing and producing Machine Tools and Wind Energy Turbines
-
Energy management systems5 years ago
Demand/Supply – Renewable energy with guarantees of origin (GO)
-
Events5 years ago
Key Players from 10 Nations will Show Their Strong Positions at APWEE
-
Manufacturers of wind turbines5 years ago
The Nordex Group receives first order for Delta4000 turbines from the USA
-
Manufacturers of wind turbines4 years ago
ENERCON installs E-160 EP5 prototype
-
Genel7 years ago
Zorlu energy envisages a bold new future based on renewables
-
Manufacturers of wind turbines5 years ago
ENERCON and Lagerwey together develop two new WEC types