Gridded Renewables Nowcasting Demonstration over South Australia
Summary
The Gridded Renewables Nowcasting Demonstration project acknowledges that forecasting electricity generation from renewable energy resources on a day ahead or short-term basis is essential for the management of networks with high shares of renewable energy.Existing technologies used to predict the nowcasting (i.e. 5 minutes to 6 hours ahead) forecast horizon are based on numerical weather programs, which update two to four times per day.These models leave gaps in the nowcast predictions, which can affect the security and reliability of electricity supply.The Gridded Renewables Nowcasting Demonstration project will demonstrate nowcasting technology over South Australia, which will utilise a range of data sets and data streams, including historical surface meteorological measurement data and wind and solar farm weather data, to develop high quality forecasts. These forecasts will be shared via project partners, Weatherzone and TESLA Asia Pacific, to be assessed and used by AEMO, the local distribution network operator (SA Power Networks), and generator asset operators.The project forecasting methodologies will be capable of accurately predicting renewable energy generation on the nowcasting horizon, including ramping events and periods of suppressed generation, with a gridded, rapidly-updating, spatially aware forecast model.This initiative aims to provide the energy industry with enhanced situational awareness and more precise forecasts to support the management of the grid.Solcast will author a public knowledge sharing report highlighting the outcomes of the project including the forecast performance, economic impact/value on the grid, and use cases for the technology.