International audienceThe installed wind energy capacity in Europe today is 20 GW, while the projections for 2010 according to the Kyoto protocol and the EC directives is up to 40-60 GW. The large-scale integration of wind energy emerges the use of advanced operational tools for short-term forecasting of the wind production in the next hours up to the next 2-7 days. End-users (independent power producers, electric companies, transmission system operators, etc) recognize the contribution of wind prediction for a secure and economic operation of the power system. Especially, in a liberalized electricity market, prediction tools enhance the position of wind energy compared to other forms of dispatchable generation. The paper presents in detail the state-of the-art on the methods, the software tools and the relevant R&D projects for wind power forecasting. The paper finally presents experience by end-users that run operationally such prediction systems today as stand-alone applications or interfaced to EMS/DMS systems. The paper reviews the related literature on wind power prediction. Emphasis is given on operational tools such as WPPT, Prediktor, Zephyr, Previento, SIPREÓLICO, LocalPred, More-Care etc. The various models or tools are classified using criteria like: · The type of implemented approach i.e. timeseries (neural networks, ARMA etc) or physical. · The specific spatial scale focused by the models (regional, wind park scale, micro-scale). · The on-line performance of the prediction tools and their coupling to Energy Management Systems