Posters

Abstract

In Ireland meteorological data signals from wind farms above 15MW are a requirement under Grid Code (GC) and Distribution Code (DC) to provide meteorological signals from on-site equipment to the TSO/DSO's. Wind Farms are required to submit four meteorological signals: wind speed, wind direction, air pressure and air temperature. These signals are essential in providing real time and future forecasting to maintain system security and the detection of high wind speed shut down events. A real-time forecast process must apply quality control to use data that only reflects the reality of the current weather conditions at the wind farms. In the case of poorly maintained data recording and delivery the forecast process will reject a large fraction of data leading to higher errors in the wind power forecast. Low quality forecast data can lead to poor decision making by control room engineers. Furthermore, data quality must be high to improve confidence in the decision-making process. Ireland, with its westerly position, is the first country in Europe to experience westerly storm fronts. There is also limited meteorological data available to the west due to the Atlantic Ocean. This leads to higher weather forecast uncertainty which is further exacerbated during storm events. To support the growth of the Irish wind industry wind power forecasting and control room decision making needed to be improved. Traditionally, distribution and grid codes state that the acceptable sources for meteorological data signals are from a meteorological mast. The installation, management and maintenance of meteorological masts require a multitude of considerations including planning permission, associated costs, visual impact, working at height, remote installations, and annual calibration of anemometers. In 2016, EirGrid commissioned an investigation into the provision of alternative wind speed measurements to meteorological masts. Following this, in 2019, Energia in collaboration with EirGrid and ZX Lidars, conducted an extensive trial to assess the feasibility of using the ZX300 Wind Lidar as an alternative to a permanent meteorological mast. The trial of the Lidar was successful with the Lidar meeting the criteria of a 98% data delivery rate and a 5% improvement of the measured wind speed versus the forecasted wind speed for predicting wind farm power output. This poster details the trial and outcomes which led to acceptance by EirGrid of the ZX300 Lidar as an alternative to wind farm permanent meteorological masts.