Weather simulators

In demod, you can use real historical weather data or generate synthetic profiles. Here the list of the available modules:

CREST irradiance simulator

API

For details about the implementation of this simulator you can visit CrestIrradianceSimulator.

Description

This module simulates daily irradiance with 1 min time resolution, following the approach developed in CREST . On one hand, it estimates the irradiance clear sky, taking into account geographical position, solar angle and time of year. On the other hand, the clearness of the sky is estimated using a Markov-chain technique, based on historical clearness values. The product of the two allows to estimate the effective global radiation on horizontal surface.

Availability

As the global clearness TPM is constructed based on global irradiance data, measured at Loughborough University in 2007, this module can be used for the UK context. However, if you have equivalent data for other regions, you can easily extend its application.

CREST climate simulator

API

For details about the implementation of this simulator you can visit CrestClimateSimulator.

Description

This module simulates the climate (i.e., irradiance and external air temperature) with 1 min time resolution, following the approach developed in CREST . It is based on CrestIrradianceSimulator, and an autoregressive–moving-average (ARMA) model for the external air temperature.

In order to maintain the appropriate correlation between radiation and external air temperature, the calculation is done in two steps:

  1. Average day temperature. The average daily temperature is generated based on the long-term average daily temperature for the day of year selected by the user, combined with a stochastic deviation around the average to add an appropriate amount of randomness.

  2. Stochastic daily temperature profile. First a daily maximum and minimum temperature are assigned based on the expected cumulative irradiance for the day. Then, the temperature profile is simulated by considering the incident irradiance during daylight hours and the clearness index during night hours. As discussed in [McKenna2016], this approach guarantees a certain degree of correlation between temperature and irradiance, while keeping the average temperature for the day unchanged.

Availability

As the model employs historical data (i.e., average external air temperature) from the UK, it can be used for this context. However, if you have equivalent data for other regions, you can easily extend its application.

Real climate simulator

API

For details about the implementation of this simulator you can visit RealClimate.

Description

This module allows you to use historical climate data (i.e., irradiance and temperature) in your simulation. Once the dataset containing the historical climate data has been imported, this module iterates the simulation by selecting the days and hours of interest.

Availability

In demod you can use data for Germany with a temporal resolution of 1 hour derived from Renewables ninja and available here. This dataset also contains data for other European countries that can therefore be used for new simulations.

Real interpolated climate simulator

API

For details about the implementation of this simulator you can visit RealInterpolatedClimate.

Description

Since sometimes the available historical data do not have the desired temporal resolution, it is possible to use this module to obtain more granular profiles. The operation of this module is similar to Real climate simulator, but in this case the simulation is iterated over the interpolated climate profiles.

Availability

In demod you can use data for Germany with a temporal resolution of 1 hour derived from Renewables ninja and available here. This dataset also contains data for other European countries that can therefore be used for new simulations.