A hybrid prediction model for forecasting wind energy resources

Wind energy is important to the transformation and development of global energy, because it is clean and renewable. However, the productivity of wind power is low due to its volatility, randomness, and uncertainty. Therefore, a new hybrid prediction model based on combined Elman-radial basis function (RBF) and Lorenz disturbance is proposed, which can promote the productivity of wind power by better predicting wind speed, firstly, applying the variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm to original nonstationary wind speed data to obtain several relatively stationary intrinsic mode functions (IMF), so as to fully exploit its potential characteristics. Meanwhile, the sample entropy is introduced to determine the decomposition number K. Afterwards, different IMF components with different characteristics are used for training and prediction: Elman neural network with sensitivity to historical state data is used for wind speed trend components; RBF with strong nonlinear mapping capability is adopted for other stochastic modal components. Next, the first-step prediction values can be obtained by reconstructing the predicted results of the respective IMF components. Finally, the Lorenz equation is introduced in view of the effects of atmospheric disturbances on wind fluctuations, which can be used to revise the first-step prediction results to obtain more realistic prediction results. By experimenting with the real data from two different wind farms and comparing with other predictive models, we found that (1) VMD can solve the problem of modal aliasing in empirical mode decomposition, to obtain a better decomposition result; (2) the combined prediction method of Elman and RBF is used for modal components, that is, different algorithms are adopted for different components, which have better prediction effects; (3) in this research, the results of the proposed combination prediction model is more accurate by comparison with the other neural network models. This research work will help the power system to rationally formulate wind farm control strategies, enhance the self-regulation of wind farm, and further promote global energy innovation.