Cloud Motion Forecasting and Cloud Base Height Estimation Using Two Low-Cost Sky Cameras

Can Zhang, Yang Du, Xiaoyang Chen, Eng Gee Lim

Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceedingConference Proceedingpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Passing cloud results in rapid irradiance changes. The intermittency of PV output power has drawn serious concern as the PV system installation increases. Consequently, power ramp-rate control (PRRC) is introduced as the regulation to limit significant power fluctuations. These requirements are driving an increasing demand for ultra short-term PV power forecasting. Sky imager has been used as an effective tool to predict the cloud motion, then to forecast the PV power. However, the high cost of sky imager system and low update frequency are still hindering its application in PRRC. The estimation of cloud base height (CBH) is also a challenging using sky imager. In this paper, a low-cost cloud motion tracking system has been developed. Ultra short-term cloud motion forecasting has been achieved in seconds level which can be used in PRRC application. The proposed cloud tracking method improves the forecasting accuracy by multiple cloud centroid tracking. Secondly, a novel sky camera based CBH estimation method is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed CBH estimation method has been verified by experiment results.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2nd IEEE Conference on Energy Internet and Energy System Integration, EI2 2018 - Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781538685495
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Dec 2018
Event2nd IEEE Conference on Energy Internet and Energy System Integration, EI2 2018 - Beijing, China
Duration: 20 Oct 201822 Oct 2018

Publication series

Name2nd IEEE Conference on Energy Internet and Energy System Integration, EI2 2018 - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2nd IEEE Conference on Energy Internet and Energy System Integration, EI2 2018
Country/TerritoryChina
CityBeijing
Period20/10/1822/10/18

Keywords

  • cloud base height estimation
  • cloud motion vector tracking
  • solar power ramp-rate control
  • ultra short-time forecasting

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