Solar and wind power plant forecasting

Weather forecasting for solar and wind power plant operations is crucial for many stakeholders involved in renewable energy.

Power plant operators and producers need to accurately forecast the amount of energy their plants will produce in the coming minutes, hours and days, in order to sell the electricity produced to grid operators.

Increase economic benefits

Accurate power forecasts lead to reduced imbalance charges and penalties. Therefore, wind and solar forecasting for plant operations gives a good visibility regarding the resources that will be available in the next minutes, hours and days.

Integrate more variable energy sources

Integrating forecasting into the process of committing generation units helps operators moderate the uncertainty linked to wind and solar power generation.

Improve system reliability

Scheduling and planning using forecasting help avoid costs and the lack of efficiency due to unnecessary starts and stops of diesel and thermal generators.

Power forecasting for innovative solar and wind installations

Solar and wind energy production forecasts

Forecasting is essential for utility-scale solar and wind power projects to optimize grid integration and stability, and for plant operators, energy traders and TSOs it is indispensable to accurately predict their plants’ future production schedules. Accurate predictions of wind speed at hub height are crucial for both, onshore and offshore wind farms. Bifacial PV modules, capturing sunlight on both sides, benefit from precise forecasts to maximize efficiency, as do floating PV systems. Trackers for PV modules require reliable irradiance predictions to follow the sun effectively. Last but not least, solar thermal plants and CSP systems depend on accurate forecasting for managing thermal storage and power generation.

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Products & Services for wind and solar plant operations

Depending on your project, several of Reuniwatt’s products could help you in your day-to-day solar and wind power plant operations:

InstaCast™: ultra high resolution forecasts for the next minutes ahead are provided by InstaCast™, which makes the most out of sky images taken by ground-based whole-sky imagers. This service is particularly useful for solar plant operations when coupled with a storage system, or hybrid PV-diesel power plants. Read more
HourCast™: Reuniwatt has developed specific algorithms to analyse and process near real-time power production data and satellite images (for cloud motion detection), in order to forecast the wind and solar power production at a specific site, or for a full portfolio of installations. This solution helps to manage daily power plant operations thanks to frequent updates (every 5 to 15 minutes). Read more
DayCast™: Forecasting a wind or solar power plant’s production up to 7 days in advance enables week-ahead planning and optimised operations. Read more