BPA Will Hold Wind Forecast Competition

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is sponsoring a contest which will require researchers to come up with the best system to accurately predict changes in regional wind shifts up to 36 hours ahead of time. The contest will consist of two competing research teams to see who can develop the most reliable system.

BPA took applications from various wind forecasters interested in competing and then chose two research teams to enter the final round of competition. The two teams are AWS Truewind and Energy & Meteo Systems. 

The reward to the team able to develop the most accurate wind prediction system will be a contract with BPA to work on a full scale wind forecast project for the Northwest wind projects. Accurate wind predictions are becoming increasingly valuable to the renewable energy sector, especially the wind power industry, in order to foresee sudden changes in wind patterns which can affect wind energy output.

“Wind power is a great energy source, but we could make even better use of it if we could anticipate big changes,” said John Pease, the project manager overseeing the initiative for BPA’s Technology Innovation Office. “By fostering this friendly competition, we’re getting some of the best wind forecasting brainpower in the world focused on developing an important new tool.”

The two teams, hailing from the U.S. and Germany respectively, will begin production on their prediction models this month based on 2007 recorded wind conditions. The competition will be judged on accuracy by researchers from Oregon State University. Both companies are required to use the same publicly available wind data accessed via BPA’s wind measurement sites and then cross checked by Oregon State University.

The competing research teams will measure forecasts through till December this year and then BPA will select a winner in early 2010. If both teams perform outstandingly BPA has retained the right to sign contracts with both teams separately.

Special thanks to renewableenergyworld.com for the above quotes, for more information please view the article on their website.