Craig Collier News

DNV GL has announced its launch of Forecaster NOW, the industry’s first forecast on-demand web portal with e-commerce enabled transactions. Forecaster NOW is part of a suite of DNV GL subscription-based short-term forecasting services which also includes: Forecaster Live, Forecaster Plus and Forecaster Solutions. “Power grids and markets will continue their rapid transformation to a low carbon system,” said Craig Collier, head of forecasting for the Americas at DNV GL. Forecaster NOW provides users with on-demand forecasts of select power markets with hourly resolution to seven days. Easily accessible on the web, Forecaster NOW aims to provide energy traders, plant operators and other stakeholders with immediate estimates of future wind and solar plant energy production.

In order to manage wind generation in its real-time and day-ahead markets, the system operator for the New England area of the U.S., ISO New England Inc., has awarded GL Garrad Hassan a two-year contract to provide wind power forecasting services to all wind in the ISO’s footprint, including generation within the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. GL Garrad Hassan is in the beginning stages of this project for the ISO, with plans to begin first forecast delivery in 2012. Accurate forecasting is the key to the management of any generation source that inherently depends on the variability of the weather, requiring advanced short-term prediction of  generation to make it approach the manageability of conventional electricity sources.

Collier Research Corporation released its HyperSizer v6 structural sizing and analysis software for reducing weight, maintaining strength and improving the manufacturability of complex composite and metallic designs. Developed and proven at NASA, the software — the first ever commercialized by the agency — has a track record of 20 percent weight reduction in high-profile government and commercial aerospace projects. In addition, HyperSizer’s design and manufacturing capabilities…

HyperSizer is a structural sizing and design optimization software tool that works in a feedback loop with finite element analysis (FEA) to automatically search for solutions that minimize weight and maximize manufacturability. Although it can also be used on metallic structures, HyperSizer is particularly applicable to complex composite materials, providing the capability to optimize the architecture of large structures—like space vehicles, aircraft, railcars, or even ships—ply-by-ply and element-by-element.