One of our roles is to balance supply and demand for electrical energy. The amount of energy being generated from wind is set to increase significantly over the next decade and beyond. To assist in this balancing role we have to forecast the output of wind power generators at different lead times ranging from real time to two days ahead. This helps us to ensure security of supply, minimise the costs to consumers and facilitate a greener power generation mix.

Facts and Figures

The current capacity of wind power connected to the transmission system that we forecast for is 1.6GW (Feb 2010). This capacity is expected to continue to increase during 2010/11 and could reach 32GW of wind generation capacity by 2020.

Further details of the expected growth in wind power capacity can be found in Operating in 2020 report and the Seven Year Statement.

Workshop

National Grid would like to engage further with Wind Power Companies to explore greater levels of collaboration and sharing of good practice. To this end we held a wind power workshop in Islington on Tuesday 16 February 2010.

This page will become a portal to Wind Power Companies to assist in the improvement of forecasting techniques and to encourage the sharing of data.