Local ownership, smart energy systems and better wind power economy

Increasing wind power shares enhances the need to integrate wind power into the energy system and to improve its economy. In this study we propose two ways of achieving this end. One is to increase the value of wind power by integrating the heat and power markets, and thus ensures that wind power is never sold at a lower price than the most expensive heat alternative.The other is to lower the average costs of wind power by building more onshore wind power capacity, and proportionally less offshore wind power. This is facilitated by local and regional majority ownership models that increase the acceptance rate of onshore wind.The economy of wind power is thus improved by both increasing its value and reducing its costs

Current methods and advances in forecasting of wind power generation

Wind power generation differs from conventional thermal generation due to the stochastic nature of wind. Thus wind power forecasting plays a key role in dealing with the challenges of balancing supply and demand in any electricity system, given the uncertainty associated with the wind farm power output. Accurate wind power forecasting reduces the need for additional balancing energy and reserve power to integrate wind power. Wind power forecasting tools enable better dispatch, scheduling and unit commitment of thermal generators, hydro plant and energy storage plant and more competitive market trading as wind power ramps up and down on the grid. This paper presents an in-depth review of the current methods and advances in wind power forecasting and prediction. Firstly, numerical wind prediction methods from global to local scales, ensemble forecasting, upscaling and downscaling processes are discussed. Next the statistical and machine learning approach methods are detailed. Then the techniques used for benchmarking and uncertainty analysis of forecasts are overviewed, and the performance of various approaches over different forecast time horizons is examined. Finally, current research activities, challenges and potential future developments are appraised