Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center

2007-08 Seminars

Weather derivatives on prediction errors for wind power energy trading

Yuji Yamada
Graduate School of Business Sciences,
University of Tsukuba

Abstract
Wind power energy has been paid much attention recently for various reasons, and the production of electricity with wind energy has been hugely increasing for a few decades. One of the most difficult issues for using wind power in practice is that the power output largely depends on the wind condition, and as a result, the future output may be volatile or uncertain. Therefore, the prediction of power output in the future is considered important and may become responsible for electric power generating industries to make the wind power electricity market work properly. However, the use of predictions may cause other problems due to "prediction errors.''
In this work, we will propose a new type of weather derivatives based on the prediction errors for wind speeds, and estimate their hedge effect on wind power energy businesses. At first, we will investigate the correlation of prediction errors between the power output and the wind speed in a Japanese wind farm, which is a collection of wind turbines that generate electricity in the same location. Then we will develop a methodology that will optimally construct a wind derivative based on the prediction errors using nonparametric regressions. A simultaneous optimization technique of the P/L and payoff functions for wind derivatives is demonstrated based on the empirical data.

Slides