Use of Turbine-level Data for Improved Wind Power Forecasting

Browell, J. , Gilbert, C. and McMillan, D. (2017) Use of Turbine-level Data for Improved Wind Power Forecasting. In: 2017 IEEE Manchester PowerTech, Manchester, UK, 18-22 Jun 2017, ISBN 9781509042371 (doi: 10.1109/PTC.2017.7981134)

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Abstract

Short-term wind power forecasting is based on modelling the complex relationship between the weather forecasts and wind farm power production. To date, efforts to improve wind power forecasts have focused on improving Numerical Weather Prediction and wind farm power curve models. However, utility-scale wind farms cover large areas meaning that a single power curve model may struggle to represent the collective behaviour of large numbers of wind turbines. Contemporary statistical techniques are capable of processing large volumes of data, enabling the assimilation of measurements from individual wind turbines to construct a more detailed representation of wind farm power generation. Here, three state-of-the-art techniques are applied to forecast wind farm power production 1) directly from numerical weather predictions, and 2) by aggregating forecasts for individual wind turbines. Furthermore, it is observed that some wind turbines are better predictors than others and an aggregation process based on conditional weighting is proposed. In case studies of two large wind farms in the UK, it is shown that wind farm power forecasts comprising a conditional weighted sum of turbine-level predictions are superior to a direct wind farm forecast for horizons up to 48 hours ahead. Specifically, performance of the best-performing benchmark, the gradient boosting machine, is improved by 12% at Clyde South wind farm and by 6% at Gordonbush.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:Jethro Browell is supported by the University of Strathclyde’s EPSRC Doctoral Prize, grant number EP/M508159/1, and Ciaran Gilbert by the University of Strathclyde’s EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind and Marine Energy Systems, grant number EP/L016680/1.
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Browell, Dr Jethro
Authors: Browell, J., Gilbert, C., and McMillan, D.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Mathematics and Statistics > Statistics
ISBN:9781509042371
Published Online:20 July 2017

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