Short term wind speed prediction using artificial neural networks

As an alternative to fossil fuels, wind is a plentiful, clean, and renewable natural resource for energy. Essentially, power generation from wind depends on wind speed; thus, wind speed prediction becomes increasingly important for modern wind farm management and supply-demand balancing in the Smart Grid. However, wind speed is generally very difficult to estimate, due to its non-stationary and intermittent nature. In this paper, an approach based on artificial neural network (ANN) is developed. The neural network is trained and tested using data from the National Wind Technology Center. Computer simulation results show that the proposed neural network model can successfully predict wind speed in real-time.