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Developing climate services:
the role of the energy sector
Laurent Dubus and Sylvie Parey,
EDF Research and Development/Atmospheric Environment and Applied Meteorology, France
T
he energy industry is exposed to weather and climate vari-
ability in the whole range of its activities. The impacts
concern all time and space scales
1
and are now frequently
documented in corporate communication. In 2010, the impact
of climate on EDF’s sales was positive and estimated to be
€
337
million. Weather and climate information is vitally important in
everyday operations, and there is a need for new climate services
to ensure the resilience of energy systems facing new environ-
mental constraints and development needs.
The energy sector
The energy sector has been one of the most important users of
weather and climate information and forecasts for several decades
now. Forecasting parameters describing the state and the evolution
of the atmosphere, the ocean and the hydrosphere are essential for
both the physical and technical management of energy systems
and their financial optimization in national or regional competitive
markets. Moreover, the sector’s quick evolutions constantly create
new needs. This is notably the case with the rapid development
of renewable energy systems (wind and solar in particular), which
increase the dependence of energy systems on weather variability.
New uses of electricity and new power systems organizations (elec-
tric vehicles, smart buildings and smart grids) increasingly demand
new types of observations and forecasts as well. In addition, some
climate events which can already be attributed to global change,
demand new products and services.
The increasing exposure of the energy sector to weather and
climate variability reinforces the already observed upward trend
in the number, complexity and value of data provided by national
meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) and requests
made by users.
Existing information
Numerical weather prediction models have significantly improved
in the last 10-15 years, in particular at lead-times of a few days up to
one month. In parallel, many efforts have been made to better assess
the quality and benefits of weather and climate forecasts with regard
to the energy sector’s economic needs.
Temperature and precipitation are the basic variables useful to
many power companies. If high forecasting errors can occur on some
occasions, the forecasts’ quality for these variables has regularly
improved and still does so. But with the development of wind and
solar power, wind and solar radiation observations and short-term
forecasts have become invaluable, and their quality will certainly be
among the drivers for the development of renewable energy systems
E
nergy
Aerial view of Gamsheim’s hydraulic arrangement on the Rhine
river, hydroelectric power plant and dam
Image: © EDF, Marc Didier