Extended Abstract (164K)J22.6
Undergraduate forecasting and nowcasting for a major urban public utility
Brian J. Cerruti, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ; and S. G. Decker, L. A. Bowers, W. K. Wittman, and J. Carlson
Public Service Electric & Gas Company (PSE&G) is the largest public utility in New Jersey, providing services to several urban areas, such as Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, and the Philadelphia suburbs. The weather can have a dramatic impact on energy demands given this dense population. As such, Rutgers University and PSE&G have developed a cooperative relationship to provide accurate, detailed, daily weather forecasts to help PSE&G prepare for adverse weather. Most importantly, Rutgers forecasters provide PSE&G officials with weather alerts specifically tailored to PSE&G's needs and concerns. In return, PSE&G provides Rutgers undergraduates who participate in the program with the unique opportunity to forecast for a high profile utilities company, in a real world environment. The experience is complete with deadline driven work, intra-forecaster cooperation, and all of the diverse weather situations New Jersey has to offer a forecaster. Forecasters have the opportunity to earn academic credit through the Cooperative Education Program at the Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The origins of the unique PSE&G/Rutgers relationship, the daily routine of a PSE&G/Rutgers forecaster, the challenge of forecasting in an urban environment, the use of high-resolution model forecasts run at Rutgers, and the development of an experimental Power Plant Damage Forecast Model being developed at Rutgers will be discussed.
Joint Session 22, Modeling Tools for Energy Production in Urban and Complex Terrain
Thursday, 15 January 2009, 11:00 AM-12:15 PM, Room 124A
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