In 2018 the share of renewable energy exceeded 40 percent of the gross power generation in Germany. The weather-dependent nature of renewable energy production and its variability poses great challenges for the power grid. Therefore, reliable and sharp weather forecasts are required in order to ensure energy security and grid stability, and to minimize costs for grid development and maintenance. Germany‘s National Meteorological Service, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), cooperates with the German energy industry to support the integration of the increasing share of renewable energy in the power production. In this collaboration, the DWD optimizes its numeric weather prediction system for the needs of the energy sector and on the development of user-optimized forecast products.
This challenge has been addressed within a couple of research projects like EWeLiNE and ORKA. The successful research continues within the follow-up project Gridcast, led by DWD, Fraunhofer-Institut für Energiewirtschaft und Energiesystemtechnik (IEE) and German transmission system operators. The main objective of EWeLiNE was improvement of wind and PV power forecasts by combining optimized weather forecasts and improved power forecast models. Gridcast now focuses on optimizing the nowcasting systems and short-term predictions, developing rapid update forecasts and improving predictions for events relevant for the grid like conductor vibrations.
These specific forecasts are provided to the transmission system operators using a graphical user interface (GUI). This interface enables the user to access tailored weather forecast products in a highly time-resolved, interactive and web-based way. Due to the integration of the data in an open-source web viewer, it is not only possible to visualize it in a GUI, but also to use it in custom specific applications like geographical information systems. This offers a high potential for future use.
This presentation will give an overview of the project Gridcast, which involves the cooperation between meteorology and energy industry. Furthermore, it emphasizes on the DWD forecast GUI serving as a gateway to customized weather products and data for system operators.