Lifetime extension of waked wind farms using active power control

Abstract

This paper studies a new active power control (APC) of waked wind farms in order to extend the lifetime of highly loaded wind turbines. We demonstrate that the structural fatigue loading of a single turbine can be significantly alleviated, while the wind farm power production follows a power reference signal. Then, an optimization problem, subjected to a data-driven fatigue load model, is formulated to balance the lifetime fatigue loading of the wind turbines operating within a waked wind farm. A Game-Theoretic (GT) approach is employed to find a lifetime fraction, wherein a wind turbine should actively reject its own dynamic loadings due to turbulence. A large-eddy simulation model is employed for resolving the turbulent flow, the wake structures and its interaction with the atmospheric boundary layer. The applicability and key features of the controller are discussed with a wind farm example consisting of 2×2 turbines. The overall increase of wind farm lifetime is evaluated using the damage equivalent load (DEL) of the tower base fore-aft bending moment of the individual wind turbines.