AWS Truewind announced today that its eWind® forecasting system is now providing wind power forecasts for over 14,000 MW of installed capacity throughout North America. This milestone positions AWS Truewind and the eWind system as the most widely used forecasting service on the continent. Renowned for its accuracy, reliability and ability to be customized to meet client needs and unique site conditions, the eWind forecasting system is well-positioned and has the capacity to accommodate the wind power industry’s anticipated growth for the next decade.
According to Ken Pennock, Forecasting Business Manager at AWS Truewind, “our current customer base accounts for over half of the installed capacity in the US. With clients in the Texas, California and New York markets, which all expect tremendous growth in the next few years, we consciously expanded our forecasting operations to include the necessary infrastructure and personnel to facilitate this growth.”
One of the eWind system’s many strengths is that it can be leveraged as a research tool to develop forecasts that are optimized to predict infrequent yet significant occurrences like large ramp events. In this respect, the eWind system is currently supporting the AWS Truewind team of experts in advanced research topics like observational targeting which determines optimal locations for off-site meteorological sensors that yield maximum short-term forecast accuracy improvements.
“The versatility of the eWind forecasting system allows AWS Truewind to develop forecasting solutions that take into account specific conditions found at individual wind plants and unique delivery mechanisms that meet the security requirements of the most stringent scheduling system,” said Dr. John Zack, Principal and Director of Forecasting at AWS Truewind’s Forecasting Operations Center. “Our forecasting team members are experts at developing and adjusting physics-based atmospheric models and applying adaptive statistics. The success of the eWind system is determined not by black-box technology, but by our team’s interaction with each client to understand their unique challenges so that we can provide a solution that supports their goals,” adds Zack.
The firm is keenly aware that a cookie-cut solution is not satisfactory in many cases and strives to ensure that all of its clients receive an integrated solution tailored to their specific needs. “Many times our clients come to us with a lot of unknowns in respect to what a forecasting solution should be doing for them. At AWS Truewind, we take this opportunity to work side-by-side with our clients to ensure they fully understand the capabilities and value of a state-of-the-art forecasting system. It is in everyone’s best interest to ensure expectations are clear and all goals are achievable,” said Pennock.
eWind is a state-of-the-art automated forecasting service developed by AWS Truewind in the 1990s to meet the renewable energy industry’s need for accurate plant output forecasts anywhere from several minutes to several days in advance. The eWind system consists of three components; 1) physics-based atmospheric models, 2) adaptive statistics models, and 3) an automated delivery system. To learn more about AWS Truewind’s forecasting services, contact Ken Pennock, kpennock@awstruewind.com. For further technical discussion of the eWind system, click here.