VW drivers automatically collect weather data for grid operator

Car manufacturer VW has made an agreement with transmission grid operator Tennet to provide weather data automatically collected by VW vehicles in Germany, Daniel Wetzel writes on Welt Online. “Using built-in rain, light, and sun sensors, the cars will collect the weather data and send them to Tennet in real time,” Wetzel explains, adding that the Dutch-German grid operator intends to use the data for short-term prognoses, allowing it to better predict the productivity of solar power plants and optimise its grid regulation. Tennet Germany CEO Urban Keussen told the newspaper the data could allow the company to buy less balancing energy and might also help “to limit construction of new power grids.”

Read the article in German here.

For further information, see the CLEW factsheets Volatile but predictable: Forecasting renewable power generation and Re-dispatch costs in the German power grid.