Electricity generation

There has been a transition in recent years to the greater use of environmentally friendly means of generating electricity. Apart from the wind and sun, there has been an increasing use of natural gas as a source.

The efficiency of gas-fired power stations is directly affected by the weather - the temperature and humidity of the air burnt with the gas has a direct impact on the fuel-to-output ratio.

Met Office services provide forecasts of the ambient air temperature and humidity out to three days and beyond. The forecasts take account of local conditions - including how waste heat from turbines, exhaust stacks, and cooling towers is recirculated within the power generation site itself.

Site Specific Forecasts for gas-fired electricity generation

Our unique FSSSI (Forecasting for Specific Sites: System Implementation) service enables us to produce site specific forecasts based on the longitude and latitude of your site, with added detail to produce forecasts for the exact height of your inlet valve or hub/met mast.

The forecasts provide: hourly data available to T+36; three-hourly data available to T+72. Parameters include: wind speed; wind direction; temperature; per cent humidity; pressure; gust speed.

Standard Service — offers all the elements described for a site-specific UK location of your choice Enhanced Service — includes all the elements of the standard service. In addition, where on-site meteorological observations are available and can be sent to the Met Office, it includes a Kalman filtering process to integrate these into the forecast model post-processing to improve forecast data quality and provide a verification of the forecast data against observations.

To discuss the range of services and prices in detail please contact our Customer Centre and ask for Energy sales or e-mail us at energy@metoffice.gov.uk