The impact of wind power prediction (WPP) on power systems is discussed and the factors affecting the accuracy of WPP are summarized. Then the paper unscrambles the WPP process from the viewpoint of information flow

classifies its research status and discusses the requirements of evaluation index for WPP results. It is proposed that the error evaluation index should reflect the WPP quality of the whole time window

and possible breakthroughs of WPP are also predicted. This work is jointly supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2013CB228204)

Australian Research Council Project (No. DP120101345)

NSFC-EPSRC Collaborative Project (No. NSFC-513111025-2013

No. EPSRC-EP/L001063/1)

and State Grid Corporation of China.