Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Adjustment of wind farm power output through flexible turbine operation using wind farm control

Significance Statement

With high penetration of wind power, the power generated by wind farms can no longer simply be that dictated by the wind speed. It will be necessary for wind farms to provide services to the grid including spinning reserve, frequency support and assistance with supply-demand matching. In these circumstances, to regulate the power generated by the wind farm to match the grid requirements, a wind farm controller, causing the power generated by each turbine to be adjusted, is required.

This study proposes a flexible, hierarchic, decentralized and scalable approach to wind farm control that can be used to maximize the aggregated wind farm power output and/or to follow a reference for the aggregated wind farm power output, taking into account fatigue loading on each wind turbine. It is capable of providing fast and accurate control of the power generated by the wind farm in the below and above rated wind speed without compromising the turbines’ own full envelope controllers through enclosing them in an additional feedback.

The wind farm controller has two elements, the Network Wind Farm Controller (NWFC) and the Turbine Wind Farm Controller (TWFC). The NWFC acts on information regarding the state of the power network to determine the required power output from the wind farm and hence the adjustment relative to the wind speed dictated wind farm power output, which would arise with no adjustment. The TWFC acts on information regarding the state of the wind farm and the turbines therein to allocate adjustments to each turbine relative to the wind speed dictated turbine power output.

The simulation results in Matlab/SIMULINK^® and DNV GL BLADED demonstrate that the wind farm power output could be curtailed for an unlimited period of time and increased for a limited period of time to match the wind farm power demand while keeping each turbine in a safe operating region. It is also demonstrated in the frequency domain that the wind-farm controller does not cause a significant feedback effect that could compromise the effectiveness of the turbines full envelope controllers; that is, redesigning or re-tuning of the existing full envelope controller is not necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About The Author

Dr. Sung-ho Hur received the B.Eng. degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering (EEE) from the University of Glasgow in 2004 and the M.Sc. degree (with Distinction) in EEE from the University of Strathclyde in 2005. He then worked as a Research Assistant in the Industrial Control Centre (ICC) within the Department of EEE at the University of Strathclyde before undertaking a Ph.D. in the ICC in 2006.

During the Ph.D., which was fully supported by an EPSRC Industrial CASE scholarship with DuPont Teijin Films UK Ltd, he conducted research on modelling, cross-directional control and fault monitoring of a plastic film manufacturing process.

Since completing his Ph.D. in 2010, he has been working as a Research Associate in the wind energy group at the University of Strathclyde, researching in control, modelling and anomaly detection of wind turbines and farms. 

 

About The Author

Prof. Bill Leithead joined the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in 1986 and has been Professor of Systems and Control Engineering since 1999 and Director of the Industrial Control Centre since 2006.

The wind energy group, which he established in 1988, is now one of the largest in the world with more than 70 researchers. He is Director of EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind Energy and Marine Systems, which was established in October 2009, and Chair of Supergen Wind Hub. He has published more than 200 publications and been the recipient of more than 40 research grants. 

 

Journal Reference

Sung-ho Hur,William E. Leithead. Adjustment of Wind Farm Output Through Flexible Turbine Operation Using Wind Farm Control. Wind Energy, 2016, Volume 19, pp 1667-1686.  

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.

 

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