Large-eddy simulation study of wind farm active power control with a coordinated load distribution

Abstract

In this paper, an active power control (APC) approach for wind farms is studied, for a case in which the wind turbines interact with each other aerodynamically through their wakes. We demonstrate that the structural loadings on the individual wind turbines can be coordinated to expand their lifetimes, while the wind farm production tracks a power reference signal. We propose an additional feedback control loop in order to adjust the distribution of the regulated power demands among the wind turbines, exploiting the non-unique solutions of APC for wind farms. The axial induction factor of each wind turbine is considered as a control input to influence the overall wind farm performance. The applicability of the controller is tested with a wind farm example consisting of 2×3 turbines with partial wake overlaps and detailed interactions with the atmospheric boundary layer, simulated with the PArallelized Large-eddy simulation Model (PALM). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and point to some future studies that may improve and extend the performance.