Weather Data for Energy Analytics: From Modeling Outages and Reliability Indices to Simulating Distributed Photovoltaic Fleets

Weather impacts virtually all facets of our daily life. As a result, many business sectors are affected by weather conditions, and the power industry is no exception. Weather is a major influencer on system reliability and a key driver of both power supply and demand. In this article, we will demonstrate novel uses of weather data for energy analytics via two utility applications. We first use easily accessible weather data together with regression analysis to model distribution outages and construct a probabilistic view of reliability indices that helps reveal a utility's reliability trend. We then use high-resolution, commercial-grade weather data to develop realistic simulations of anticipated behind-the-meter photovoltaic (PV) fleets.