Natural gas, coal and petroleum exploration, extraction, processing and distribution has always been weather sensitive and over the years basic weather services have evolved to provide support to these industries. However, over the past few years, the juxtaposition of high speed communications, major advances in numerical modeling, global sensor systems providing rich data sets not previously available and proven R&D in combining all of these to feed decision support systems highly focused on specific stakeholder needs in other sectors has brought RAL into this area of interest.
Secondly, use of alternative fuels including hydroelectric, solar, wind, and so–called bio–fuels are placing additional demands on energy companies. All of these are highly weather–dependent and will require significant R&D to provide the specific weather and climate–related technologies to support them.
Thirdly, the entire energy sector is now being faced with long–term operational, policy and business decisions that depend on accurate information regarding global climate change. Some global companies, British Petroleum for example, have already committed to strategies that assume a much higher usage of alternative fuels and are developing new business plans around these projections. Other companies have had almost no response to global climate change. Over the next three decades the success or failure of many of these large corporations will be determined by which guessed correctly. RAL, in collaboration with NESL (NCAR Earth System Laboratory), is beginning to formulate applied research programs that can assist this sector in making solid, science–based decisions.
The electrical energy sub–sector is now looking for ways to put a higher level of accuracy and reliability into forecasting electrical loads for the next day and for the next week. Sophisticated and highly tuned decision support system for load forecasting is now an emerging R&D track that RAL is pursuing. It is further complicated by the fact that this sub–sector is dependent on other energy sectors like gas, hydro, solar and wind, all of which are directly affected by weather events.
Nuclear power is for the first time in several decades beginning to make a comeback in the U.S. and is well established globally as a major energy provider. Many emerging weather technologies that were originally produced for national security purposes are ideal for mitigating either accidental or terrorist–induced releases of radiation and are being pursued by RAL.
View our exhibit from the Gas Strategies conference in Calgary, Canada.
