Optimized Renewable Energy Forecasting in Local Distribution Networks

The integration of renewable energy sources (RES) into local energy distribution networks becomes increasingly important. Renewable energy highly depends on weather conditions, making it difficult to maintain stability in such networks. To still enable efficient planning and balancing, forecasts of energy supply are essential. However, typical distribution networks contain a variety of heterogeneous RES installations (e.g. wind, solar, water), each providing different characteristics and weather dependencies. Additionally, advanced meters, which allow the communication of final-granular production curves to the network operator, are not available at all RES sites. Despite these heterogeneities and missing measurements, reliable forecasts over the whole local distribution network have to be provided. This poses high challenges on choosing the right input parameters, statistical models and forecasting granularity (e.g. single RES installations vs. aggregated data). In this paper, we will discuss such problems in energy supply forecasting using a real-world scenario. Subsequently, we introduce our idea of a generalized optimization approach that determines the best forecasting strategy for a given scenario and sketch research challenges we are planning to investigate in future work

Systematical Evaluation of Solar Energy Supply Forecasts

Abstract. The capacity of renewable energy sources constantly increases world-wide and challenges the maintenance of the electric balance between power demand and supply. To allow for a better integration of solar energy supply into the power grids, a lot of research was dedicated to the development of precise forecasting approaches. However, there is still no straightforward and easy-to-use recommendation for a standardized forecasting strategy. In this paper, a classification of solar forecasting solutions proposed in the literature is provided for both weather-and energy forecast models. Subsequently, we describe our idea of a standardized forecasting process and the typical parameters possibly influencing the selection of a specific model. We discuss model combination as an optimization option and evaluate this approach comparing different statistical algorithms against flexible hybrid models in a case study

Optimized Renewable Energy Forecasting in Local Distribution Networks

The integration of renewable energy sources (RES) into local energy distribution networks becomes increasingly important. Renewable energy highly depends on weather conditions, making it difficult to maintain stability in such networks. To still enable efficient planning and balancing, forecasts of energy supply are essential. However, typical distribution networks contain a variety of heterogeneous RES installations (e.g. wind, solar, water), each providing different characteristics and weather dependencies. Additionally, advanced meters, which allow the communication of finalgranular production curves to the network operator, are not available at all RES sites. Despite these heterogeneities and missing measurements, reliable forecasts over the whole local distribution network have to be provided. This poses high challenges on choosing the right input parameters, statistical models and forecasting granularity (e.g. single RES installations vs. aggregated data). In this paper, we will discuss such problems in energy supply forecasting using a real-world scenario. Subsequently, we introduce our idea of a generalized optimization approach that determines the best forecasting strategy for a given scenario and sketch research challenges we are planning to investigate in future work. 1