Model predictive and adaptive wind farm power control

Abstract

This paper introduces a wind farm controller that enables the power output of a wind farm to accurately and smoothly track a desired reference from a power grid operator. Developed based on a model of wind turbine control systems we recently proposed, the wind farm controller consists of an outer control loop and an inner one. The outer loop contains a model predictive controller, which uses various forecasts and feedbacks to iteratively compute a set of desired power trajectories, so that the deterministic tracking accuracy of the wind farm power output on a receding horizon is optimized. In contrast, the inner loop contains an adaptive controller, which uses estimated wind speed characteristics to adaptively tune a set of proportional controller gains, so that the stochastic smoothness of the wind farm power output on a shorter timescale is optimized. The paper also provides a series of simulation studies that illustrate the salient features of the wind farm controller.