DNV GL has won funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to trial advanced 5-minute short term forecasting at the Ararat Wind Farm in Victoria. DNV GL will deploy the wind forecasting approach at the 242MW Ararat Wind Farm with the objective of providing both short and medium-term wind generation forecasts.
This will be achieved by integrating machine learning with its existing wind Forecaster service. For this project, DNV GL has partnered with Ararat Wind Farm, owned by OPTrust and Partners Group, to provide live data for the project. DNV GL has also partnered with RES Australia, the original developers of the wind farm, to provide analysis and support to the project. Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) outputs and live data will be combined to optimise the effectiveness of different forecasting approaches. At present, the Australian energy market uses half-hourly forecasts provided by the Australian Wind Energy Forecasting System. By moving towards a 5-minute timeframe and allowing market participants to conduct self-forecasts, the trial’s objective is to reduce generation forecast error, thereby improving grid efficiency and reducing settlement costs.