Yes. You can pause the moving images with the buttons in the menu bar on the below, right-side of the map. You can go back and forward pressing the arrows in steps of one hour. At each step, the meter, graph and map show how much power is already supplied/expected by the end of the selected hour. If the clock is at 3 PM, you will see the production between 2 PM and 3 PM.
The Wallonia Dynamic Map is an instrument to show the role that solar and wind energy play in the energy system of today and tomorrow in a structured and transparent manner. It is not 100% exact, but rather a calculation model based on the available data. This implies that there is a margin of error on the data.
The assumptions used in the calculations and the known deviations are the following:
· Elia's data for installed power is considered reliable and representative. 3E calculates the total Walloon energy demand as 33% of the total grid load of the Belgian electricity grid;
· The installed powers in the calculation are always lower than in reality. This has two reasons:
o SPW-Energie updates the data on installed solar and wind capacity every six months.
o While it is mandatory, not every solar panel installation is reported to the grid operator. These unlisted installations give an incomplete overview of the installed capacity of solar panels and, hence, an incorrect implementation of the renewable energy goals for Wallonia;
· Not all renewable installations in Wallonia are monitored by Elia. Therefore, Elia's electricity production from renewable sources is first scaled to the installed capacity reported by SPW?Energie. This is done based on a weighted factor that depends on the installed capacity and weather forecast for each municipality.
· The yields of solar panels, onshore (on land) and offshore wind turbines are based on standard installations in Wallonia. Naturally, the performance of individual installations may deviate from this.
· Electricity consumption of an average household in Wallonia = 3500 kWh/year or 9.6 kWh/day.
· CO2 factor of the conventional electricity sector, a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine plant on natural gas = 456 kg CO2/MWh: source CWaPe,
On the first part of the page, live information is displayed on:
· A map of Wallonia, where the production is shown per municipality in a choropleth map. The darkness of the municipality every hour/month represents the amount of renewable energy produced. When offshore wind is selected, it is represented by the icon on the left of the map. The colour of the map varies depending on the renewable energy source selected: it is yellow for solar, dark blue for onshore wind (on land) and light blue for offshore wind. When both solar and wind are selected, the combined production is displayed as green on the map.
· A bullet chart, that shows the demand of Wallonia for each hour/month and the production from the selected energy sources for the same time as two superposed bars. The percentage of the demand that is covered by the selected renewable energy source is also displayed.
· A time plot showing the production from the selected renewable energy sources over the day/year. When the ‘daily' mode is selected and depending on the time when the website is accessed, a part of the graph may show actual production (in a darker shade) and the other part forecasted production for the rest of the day (in a lighter shade). The legend of this graph appears when the cursor is moved to the button ‘Legend' that is placed just below the time plot.
On the bottom part of the webpage, three boxes appear with relevant indicators that show (depending on the selected energy sources):
· ‘Renewable energy production' on the selected day/month, including:
o Total production in the running day/month (either actual or forecasted production). If only solar energy is selected, the amount that corresponds to residential and industrial production is differentiated.
o Percentage of the total demand over the day/month that is covered with the above production
o Peak production on the day/month relative to the demand.
o Number of electric vehicles that could be charged with the total production.
o Avoided CO2 emissions thanks to the production from renewable energy.
· ‘Renewable energy per province' for the selected date/month. For all the provinces in Wallonia, both the renewable energy production and the equivalent number of families whose consumption could be covered with this production are displayed on a table.
· ‘Records of renewable energy production related to the demand since 2015'. Two different records are displayed:
o The peak in renewable energy production per day, i.e. the day with maximum renewable energy generation (with respect to the demand) since 2015.
o The hourly peak in renewable energy production, i.e. the hour with the maximum production (with respect to the demand) since 2015.
In order to avoid confusion, the Wallonia Dynamic Map displays 100% of the electricity produced from offshore wind turbines. There is no correction factor applied in this case (as it is the case for the electricity consumption in Wallonia, which is estimated at 33% of the total electricity consumption in Belgium.
SPW trusted 3E to develop the Wallonia Dynamic Map. To determine the historical, real-time and predicted electricity production, 3E combines different data sources:
· aggregated historical and near real-time data* with a frequency of 15 minutes for the electricity production from solar panels, the electricity production from onshore and offshore wind turbines and the total grid load: source Elia (Belgian transmission system operator);
· historical, near real-time data and predictions for solar radiation and wind speeds, and the electricity production derived from this by solar panels and wind turbines in Wallonia: source 3E Data Services;
· resource forecasts (wind, solar irradiance, and temperature): source European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMFW) and Global Forecast System (GFS).
· the installed capacity of solar panels and onshore wind (on land) turbines in each Walloon municipality: source SPW.
· the installed capacity of offshore wind turbines in the North Sea: source Elia;
· number of inhabitants per municipality: source SPW;
· electricity consumption of an average Flemish family = 3500 kWh / year or 9.6 kWh / day:
· CO2 factor of the conventional electricity sector, a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine plant on natural gas = 456 kg CO2/MWh: source CWaPe,
The real-time electricity production by solar panels and onshore wind turbines level starts from Elia (Belgian transmission system operator) data. Since Elia does not monitor the installed capacity of all wind and solar power installations, the data must be corrected. In addition, the capacity that Elia monitors is growing. To account for both elements, Elia's solar and wind production is first rescaled to the full installed capacity per technology, thanks to the data provided by SPW-Energie (Public Service of Wallonia – Belgium). This gives the corrected real-time energy produced in Wallonia but doesn't yet give an indication of how much each municipality produces since Elia delivers aggregate data for the whole of Belgium.
The production data for solar and onshore wind (on land) is broken down per municipality based on the resource forecast, the installed capacity of solar panels and onshore wind (on land per municipality) turbines per municipality, and 3E in-house simulation models.
The Data Services from 3E are also used for historical data for solar radiation. The time series of energy production from solar panels, which Elia offers at the provincial level, allow calculating the production at the municipal level.
Historical wind speeds are obtained using the ReAnalysis dataset (ERA5). The historical energy production by wind turbines at municipal level is calculated using these wind speeds, the installed power per municipality and the power curve of an average wind turbine (this curve shows the relationship between wind speed and the produced power).
The real-time electricity production by offshore wind turbines also starts from the Elia data. Because Elia fully monitors the electricity production of offshore wind turbines, it is not rescaled.
Moreover, real-time electricity load data are taken from Elia and updated every hour. However, this load data is for the whole of Belgium. To get a load estimation for Wallonia, a scale factor of 0.33 is used.
Finally, the production and load data per day are stored. At the end of the day, it is checked whether a certain record has been reached, e.g. most renewable energy production. Every month, the energy production per domain of the entire month is stored as well.
* Near real-time means that the data shows the current situation or a few minutes less. These data are renewed every 15 minutes.
The Wallonia Dynamic Map's objective is to provide live information on the production from renewable energy sources (solar, onshore and offshore wind) for Wallonia. As a unique feature, this map takes into account installations of all sizes: from small rooftop PV to large industrial solar and wind farms.
Renewable energy generation is shown:
· Per hour for the current day (either actual production or forecasted, depending on the time of the day when the maps are consulted)
· Forecast (per hour) for the next day
· Historical data (per hour) for the last 30 days
· Historical data (per month) since 2015.
If either the current day, the day after or a date in the last 30 days is chosen, the bar just below the map will show evolution for each hour of the selected day. The live information then changes depending on the hour and the indicators on the bottom part of the page refer to the selected day.
If a specific year (from 2015) is chosen, the bar just below the map changes to display months. The live information then changes depending on the month of the year and the indicators on the bottom part of the page refer to the chosen year.
By moving the cursor over the map, information for each municipality appears on a tooltip. Namely:
· Production from renewable energy (depending on the selected source)
o Per hour: for the specific displayed hour
o Foreseen for the entire day
· Number of families covered, i.e. the equivalent number of families in the municipality whose daily consumption could be covered with the daily production outlined above.
· Installed capacity
· Avoided CO2 emissions
There are three different menus for the user to select from, all of which appear on the top of the page. These are:
· The energy sources: solar, onshore wind (on land) and offshore wind (the North Sea). Each source can be either individually selected (by clicking on the corresponding icon) or several of them combined. Whenever offshore wind is chosen, its production is represented by an icon on the left of the map labelled as ‘offshore wind at the North Sea'.
· The day or year. At the middle of the top page, three options appear to be clicked on: yesterday, today and tomorrow. Click on one of the options and the live information (map, bullet chart and time plot) and indicators change accordingly depending on the selected date. In addition, if clicking on ‘day', a calendar appears that allows choosing any date from the last 30 days. If clicking on ‘year', a calendar appears that allows choosing any year since 2015.
If either the current day, the day after or a date in the last 30 days is chosen, the bar just below the map will show evolution for each hour of the day. The live information then changes depending on the hour and the indicators on the bottom part of the page refer to the day.
If a specific year (from 2015) is chosen, the bar just below the map changes to display months. The live information then changes depending on the month of the year and the indicators on the bottom part of the page refer to the chosen year.
· The production mode that will be displayed on the map, bullet and time plot depending on the chosen option. These can be:
o Total production
o Production per km2 which is a measure often used for wind energy
o Production per inhabitant
