Evaluation of the WRF Wind Farm Parameterization Using Meteorological and Turbine Power Data

Even with the assistance of numerical models, forecasting wind power production, especially during ramp events, remains a great challenge for utilities and power operators. To improve model accuracy in simulating wind power production, the goal of this project is to use wind observations and the wind turbine power production in a 300 MW wind farm in central Iowa to verify the power output of the Wind Farm Parameterization (WFP) of the mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. In this project, we focused on a five-day period in the Crop and Wind Energy eXperiement in 2013 (CWEX-13) with numerous summertime nocturnal low level jets (LLJs). WRF simulations verify well against Windcube 200S scanning LiDAR observations of wind speed and direction profiles from the surface throughout the boundary layer (see Figure). The power measurements from individual turbines are compared to the power measurements predicted by simulations using the WRF WFP. Power production predictions are very sensitive to inaccuracies in wind direction in the turbine rotor layer (40 m to 120 m above the surface).