LAPS-LOWICE: A Real-Time System for the Assessment of Low-Level Icing Conditions and Their Effect on Wind Power

The wind power industry is highly sensitive to weather, and there is a clear impact on turbine efficiency associated with icing, which can cause significant power losses and even result in the total shutdown of wind farms. Therefore, accurate analyses and forecasts of wind- and icing-related meteorological variables are of great importance. To this end, the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS)-LOWICE system has been developed to produce real-time, hourly estimates of the presence, intensity, and impacts of icing on wind power production. As part of this development, it became clear that power losses did not correlate well with measured icing loads but correlated reasonably well with the time history of icing rate in combination with ice loss due to melting, sublimation, and shedding.