Wind speed forecasting: Present status

A number of wind speed forecasting techniques are available in order to predict the uncertainty of the wind, which is key to estimate wind power generation availability for the grid. It is gaining more attention with the recent evolution of smart grid, which throws a challenge of integrating wind power into the grid. Several methods have been proposed to provide wind speed prediction. In the recent years there is a lot of research happening to predict wind speed with several mathematical methods and biologically inspired computing techniques to reduce the prediction error. In this paper a detailed survey of the wind speed forecasting techniques have been provided since past 15 years. An attempt is also made to identify different wind forecasting providers available in the market. This survey will be very useful to the new researchers working in this area of research. This survey will also be helpful to the wind farm owners to understand the current wind prediction model capabilities and will gives them an idea which model will be suitable for predicting the wind speed at their wind farms.