OVERVIEW OF A WIND RESOURCE ASSESSMENT CAMPAIGN - Wind Resource Assessment: A Practical Guide to Developing a Wind Project - page 18

• equipment procurement tied to the program's specifications;
• equipment calibration method, frequency, and reporting;
• monitoring station installation, verification, and operation and maintenance
checklists;

data collection, screening, and archiving;

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data analysis guidelines (including calculations);

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data validation methods, flagging criteria, reporting frequency, and format;

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internal audits to document the performance of those responsible for site instal-
lation and operation and maintenance and for data collection and handling.

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Another goal of quality assurance is to minimize the uncertainties that unavoidably
enter at every step of the measurement processes. No tower perfectly represents the
entire area it represents, no sensor measures with perfect accuracy, and no data gath-
ered over a limited period perfectly reflect conditions a wind plant may experience
during its lifetime. However, if the magnitude of these uncertainties is understood and
controlled through a concerted quality assurance plan, the conclusions can be properly
qualified to provide useful information.

2.3 WIND RESOURCE ANALYSIS

The third stage of the wind resource assessment campaign entails the description of
the wind resource at all relevant temporal and spatial scales to support the optimal
placement of turbines within the project area and the most accurate possible estimation
of energy production. Part 2 of this topic, encompassing Chapters 9-16, deals with this
stage, including data validation, characterization of the observed resource, adjustments
for wind shear and long-term wind climate, numerical wind flow modeling, project
design and energy production calculations, and uncertainty.

2.3.1 Data Validation
Once the data from the monitoring system have been successfully transferred to an
office computing environment, the data must be checked for errors and validated.
The completeness and reasonableness of the data are assessed, and invalid or suspect
values are flagged. This process also serves to detect potential problems with the
instrumentation or data logger. Recommended data validation procedures are described
in Chapter 9.

2.3.2 Characterizing the Observed Wind Resource
After the wind resource data have been validated, they are analyzed to generate a
variety of statistics that help characterize the site's wind resource. Common statistics
include mean speed, speed and direction frequency distributions, shear, turbulence
intensity, and wind power density. A description of these metrics and associated
equations is provided in Chapter 10.