Cradden, Lucy C.Lucy C.CraddenMcDermott, FrankFrankMcDermottZubiate, LauraLauraZubiateSweeney, ConorConorSweeneyO'Malley, MarkMarkO'Malley2017-03-282017 Elsev2017-06Renewable Energyhttp://hdl.handle.net/10197/8402To study climate-related aspects of power system operation with large volumes of wind generation, data with sufficiently wide temporal and spatial scope are required. The relative youth of the wind industry means that long-term data from real systems are not available. Here, a detailed aggregated wind power generation model is developed for the Republic of Ireland using MERRA reanalysis wind speed data and verified against measured wind production data for the period 2001–2014. The model is most successful in representing aggregate power output in the middle years of this period, after the total installed capacity had reached around 500 MW. Variability on scales of greater than 6 h is captured well by the model; one additional higher resolution wind dataset was found to improve the representation of higher frequency variability. Finally, the model is used to hindcast hypothetical aggregate wind production over the 34-year period 1980–2013, based on existing installed wind capacity. A relationship is found between several of the production characteristics, including capacity factor, ramping and persistence, and two large-scale atmospheric patterns – the North Atlantic Oscillation and the East Atlantic Pattern.enThis is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Renewable Energy. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Renewable Energy (VOL 106, ISSUE 2017, (2017)) DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2016.12.079.Wind powerMERRA reanalysisNorth Atlantic OscillationEast Atlantic PatternJournal Article10616517610.1016/j.renene.2016.12.0792017-01-26https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/