Low wind speed events: persistence and frequency

Over the last decades, wind energy industry has been growing with an increasing rate. This is highly relevant to the need of new wind farm site selection with certain standards such as high wind potential and accessibility. Even in windy areas, low wind speed persistence can be characterized as an extreme (non‐frequent) atmospheric condition for the electricity network as it can lead to low or no energy production. The current work is focused on the estimation of the duration and the frequency of occurrence of low wind speed events using the principles of extreme value theory. The two methods used are the ‘intensity given duration’ and the ‘duration given intensity’ that lead to the same point from different perspectives. The data used is derived from a 10 year, hindcast, high‐resolution database developed by the Atmospheric Modeling and Weather Forecasting Group of the University of Athens. The great potential and multinational interest concerning energy applications in the North Sea has led to its selection as a study area. The outcome of the study includes the development of intensity–duration–frequency curves as well as a comparison between the two methodologies adopted. Based on these, the largest period of no energy production for a preselected probability of occurrence is estimated for the area of interest. The results of this work could be potentially supportive for studying the regional climatology. Such information can be included in risk assessment techniques and can be applied among others for energy activities. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.