IBM Provides Modelling Technology For Renewable Energy System

IBM announced an advanced power and weather modelling technology that will help utilities increase the reliability of renewable energy resources. The system combines weather prediction and analytics to forecast the availability of wind power and solar energy. This will enable utilities to integrate more renewable energy into the power grid, helping to reduce carbon emissions while improving clean energy output.

The solution, called “Hybrid Renewable Energy Forecasting” (HyRef), uses weather modelling capabilities, advanced cloud imaging technology and sky-facing cameras to track cloud movements, while sensors on the turbines monitor wind speed, temperature and direction, IBM said. When combined with analytics technology, the data-assimilation based solution can produce accurate local weather forecasts within a wind farm as far as one month in advance, or in 15-minute increments, according to the company.

Power management

Using local weather forecasts, HyRef can predict the performance of each individual wind turbine and estimate the amount of generated renewable energy. This level of insight will enable utilities to better manage the variable nature of wind and solar, and more accurately forecast the amount of power that can be redirected into the power grid or stored. It will also allow energy organisations to easily integrate other conventional sources such as coal and natural gas, IBM said.

“Utilities around the world are employing a host of strategies to integrate new renewable energy resources into their operating systems in order to reach a baseline goal of a 25 percent renewable energy mix globally by 2025,” said Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, president and chief executive of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE), in a statement. “The weather modelling and forecasting data generated from HyRef will significantly improve this process and in turn, put us one step closer to maximising the full potential of renewable resources.”

HyRef is an example of how IBM truly is working on helping to enable a Smarter Planet. IBM is involved in more than 150 smart grid engagements around the world, in both mature and emerging markets.

For instance, State Grid Jibei Electricity Power Company Limited (SG-JBEPC), a subsidiary company of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), is using HyRef to integrate renewable energy into the grid. This initiative led by SG-JBEPC is phase one of the Zhangbei 670MW demonstration project, a large renewable energy initiative that combines wind and solar power, energy storage and transmission. This project contributes to China’s five-year plan to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, IBM said.

Renewable power

By using the IBM wind forecasting technology, phase one of the Zhangbei project aims to increase the integration of renewable power generation by 10 percent. This amount of additional energy can power more than 14,000 homes. The efficient use of generated energy allows the utility to reduce wind and solar curtailment while analytics provides the needed intelligence to enhance grid operations.

“Applying analytics and harnessing big data will allow utilities to tackle the intermittent nature of renewable energy and forecast power production from solar and wind, in a way that has never been done before,” said Brad Gammons, general manager of IBM’s Global Energy and Utilities Industry group, in a statement. “We have developed an intelligent system that combines weather and power forecasting to increase system availability and optimise power grid performance.”

This project builds upon another IBM smarter analytics initiative at Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems, a manufacturer of wind power turbines. Vestas, using IBM’s big data analytics and supercomputing technology, is able to strategically place wind turbines based on petabytes of data from weather reporters, tidal phases, sensors, satellite images, deforestation maps, and weather modelling research. IBM said this insight cannot only deliver improvements in energy generation but also reduce maintenance and operational costs over the life of the project.

The Hybrid Renewable Energy Forecaster represents advancements in weather modelling technology, stemming from other IBM innovations such as Deep Thunder. Deep Thunder provides high-resolution, micro-forecasts for weather in a region – ranging from a metropolitan area up to an entire state – with calculations as fine as every square kilometre. When coupled with business data, it can help businesses and governments tailor services, change routes and deploy equipment-to minimise the effects of major weather events by reducing costs, improving service and even saving lives, IBM officials said.

Carbon-neutral region

IBM also addressed the issue of renewable energy in a recent deal with the city of Geraldton, Australia. IBM and Market Creations, a business solutions provider based in the City of Greater Geraldton, announced a multi-million dollar deal to help the city to become a carbon-neutral region and emerge as a hub for sustainable and renewable energy.

Geraldton is the administrative centre of the Australian Midwest’s industry base, which includes mining, fishing, manufacturing, construction, agriculture and tourism. The city is projected to grow rapidly over the next decade, with more than 27 billion Australian dollars (£16bn) of planned investments for the region, IBM said.

IBM and Market Creations will design and construct a cloud-enabled data centre in Geraldton to help the city realise its goals of energy efficiency and economic competitiveness.

“With Geraldton fast becoming a strategic service for industries across Western Australia, we have a responsibility to ensure that our city develops and expands in a sustainable way – and without compromising the quality-of-life for our citizens as the economic growth of the city continues to accelerate,” said Ian Carpenter, mayor of the City of Greater Geraldton, in a statement. “Geraldton needs to be able to best leverage scalable and resilient technology to support our vision of becoming a technologically advanced and carbon-neutral hub. The new data centre will help provide that platform as the first stage of this exciting digital evolution for our city and citizens.”

Under the contract, IBM will design and construct a scalable modular data centre with the uptime, security and resiliency features needed to sustain growth. The data centre will be designed for a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.3 or less, making it one of the most energy-efficient data centres in Australia.

The data centre will have the ability to scale up to four times its current capacity, a key requirement that aligns with the City of Greater Geraldton’s projected growth. The cloud capabilities will enable the facility to operate as a multi-tenanted data centre.

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Originally published on eWeek.