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Title: The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP): A Public/Private Partnership for Improving Short Term Wind Energy Forecasts and Quantifying the Benefits of Utility Operations. The Southern Study Area, Final Report

Abstract

This Final Report presents a comprehensive description, findings, and conclusions for the Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP) -- Southern Study Area (SSA) work led by AWS Truepower (AWST). This multi-year effort, sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), focused on improving short-term (15-minute - 6 hour) wind power production forecasts through the deployment of an enhanced observation network of surface and remote sensing instrumentation and the use of a state-of-the-art forecast modeling system. Key findings from the SSA modeling and forecast effort include: 1. The AWST WFIP modeling system produced an overall 10 - 20% improvement in wind power production forecasts over the existing Baseline system, especially during the first three forecast hours; 2. Improvements in ramp forecast skill, particularly for larger up and down ramps; 3. The AWST WFIP data denial experiments showed mixed results in the forecasts incorporating the experimental network instrumentation; however, ramp forecasts showed significant benefit from the additional observations, indicating that the enhanced observations were key to the model systems’ ability to capture phenomena responsible for producing large short-term excursions in power production; 4. The OU CAPS ARPS simulations showed that the additional WFIP instrument data had amore » small impact on their 3-km forecasts that lasted for the first 5-6 hours, and increasing the vertical model resolution in the boundary layer had a greater impact, also in the first 5 hours; and 5. The TTU simulations were inconclusive as to which assimilation scheme (3DVAR versus EnKF) provided better forecasts, and the additional observations resulted in some improvement to the forecasts in the first 1 - 3 hours.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9]
  1. AWS Truepower, LLC, Albany, NY (United States)
  2. MESO, Inc., Troy, NY (United States)
  3. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States). National Wind Inst.
  4. Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States). Atmospheric Science Group
  5. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States). Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms
  6. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States). Dept. of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences
  7. ICF International (United States)
  8. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  9. Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
AWS Truepower, LLC, Albany, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
OSTI Identifier:
1129905
Report Number(s):
DOE-AWST-04420
DOE Contract Number:  
EE0004420
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
17 WIND ENERGY; Wind Power Forecasting, Ensemble Modeling,

Citation Formats

Freedman, Jeffrey M., Manobianco, John, Schroeder, John, Ancell, Brian, Brewster, Keith, Basu, Sukanta, Banunarayanan, Venkat, Hodge, Bri-Mathias, and Flores, Isabel. The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP): A Public/Private Partnership for Improving Short Term Wind Energy Forecasts and Quantifying the Benefits of Utility Operations. The Southern Study Area, Final Report. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.2172/1129905.
Freedman, Jeffrey M., Manobianco, John, Schroeder, John, Ancell, Brian, Brewster, Keith, Basu, Sukanta, Banunarayanan, Venkat, Hodge, Bri-Mathias, & Flores, Isabel. The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP): A Public/Private Partnership for Improving Short Term Wind Energy Forecasts and Quantifying the Benefits of Utility Operations. The Southern Study Area, Final Report. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1129905
Freedman, Jeffrey M., Manobianco, John, Schroeder, John, Ancell, Brian, Brewster, Keith, Basu, Sukanta, Banunarayanan, Venkat, Hodge, Bri-Mathias, and Flores, Isabel. 2014. "The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP): A Public/Private Partnership for Improving Short Term Wind Energy Forecasts and Quantifying the Benefits of Utility Operations. The Southern Study Area, Final Report". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1129905. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1129905.
@article{osti_1129905,
title = {The Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP): A Public/Private Partnership for Improving Short Term Wind Energy Forecasts and Quantifying the Benefits of Utility Operations. The Southern Study Area, Final Report},
author = {Freedman, Jeffrey M. and Manobianco, John and Schroeder, John and Ancell, Brian and Brewster, Keith and Basu, Sukanta and Banunarayanan, Venkat and Hodge, Bri-Mathias and Flores, Isabel},
abstractNote = {This Final Report presents a comprehensive description, findings, and conclusions for the Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP) -- Southern Study Area (SSA) work led by AWS Truepower (AWST). This multi-year effort, sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), focused on improving short-term (15-minute - 6 hour) wind power production forecasts through the deployment of an enhanced observation network of surface and remote sensing instrumentation and the use of a state-of-the-art forecast modeling system. Key findings from the SSA modeling and forecast effort include: 1. The AWST WFIP modeling system produced an overall 10 - 20% improvement in wind power production forecasts over the existing Baseline system, especially during the first three forecast hours; 2. Improvements in ramp forecast skill, particularly for larger up and down ramps; 3. The AWST WFIP data denial experiments showed mixed results in the forecasts incorporating the experimental network instrumentation; however, ramp forecasts showed significant benefit from the additional observations, indicating that the enhanced observations were key to the model systems’ ability to capture phenomena responsible for producing large short-term excursions in power production; 4. The OU CAPS ARPS simulations showed that the additional WFIP instrument data had a small impact on their 3-km forecasts that lasted for the first 5-6 hours, and increasing the vertical model resolution in the boundary layer had a greater impact, also in the first 5 hours; and 5. The TTU simulations were inconclusive as to which assimilation scheme (3DVAR versus EnKF) provided better forecasts, and the additional observations resulted in some improvement to the forecasts in the first 1 - 3 hours.},
doi = {10.2172/1129905},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1129905}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Apr 30 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Wed Apr 30 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}