Vertically Correlated Echelon Model for the Interpolation of Missing Wind Speed Data

The wind speeds of a wind farm are not always available or accurately measurable due to uncontrollable events such as anemometer failures or data transmission errors. However, the data are of great importance for wind resource assessment and wind speed prediction. In this paper, a vertically correlated echelon model (CEM) is proposed to interpolate the missing data of wind speeds by utilizing the correlation of wind speeds at different heights. First, the data of wind speed are checked according to a national standard. Second, the model based on the correlation of wind speeds at different heights is proposed for short interval of missing data. Third, the proposed method is compared with typical interpolation methods and its advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Finally, the uncertainty of the proposed method is analyzed for improved evaluation of interpolation errors.