Weather Forecasting Error in Solar Energy Forecasting

As renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) penetrate the power grid at an accelerating speed, it is essential for operators to have accurate solar photovoltaic (PV) energy forecasting for efficient operations and planning. Generally, observed weather data are applied in the solar PV generation forecasting model while in practice the energy forecasting is based on forecasted weather data. In this paper, a study on the uncertainty in weather forecasting for the most commonly used weather variables is presented. The forecasted weather data for six days ahead is compared with the observed data and the results of analysis are quantified by statistical metrics. In addition, the most influential weather predictors in energy forecasting model are selected. The performance of historical and observed weather data errors is assessed using a solar PV generation forecasting model. Finally, a sensitivity test is performed to identify the influential weather variables whose accurate values can significantly improve the results of energy forecasting.

On the Performance of Forecasting Models in the Presence of Input Uncertainty

Nowadays, with the unprecedented penetration of renewable distributed energy resources (DERs), the necessity of an efficient energy forecasting model is more demanding than before. Generally, forecasting models are trained using observed weather data while the trained models are applied for energy forecasting using forecasted weather data. In this study, the performance of several commonly used forecasting methods in the presence of weather predictors with uncertainty is assessed and compared. Accordingly, both observed and forecasted weather data are collected, then the influential predictors for solar PV generation forecasting model are selected using several measures. Using observed and forecasted weather data, an analysis on the uncertainty of weather variables is represented by MAE and bootstrapping. The energy forecasting model is trained using observed weather data, and finally, the performance of several commonly used forecasting methods in solar energy forecasting is simulated and compared for a real case study.