Power Performance Verification of a Wind Farm Using the Friedman's Test.

Wilmar Hernandez,José López-Presa,Jorge Maldonado-Correa

doi:10.3390/s16060816

Wilmar Hernandez, José López-Presa + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060816

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Abstract

In this paper, a method of verification of the power performance of a wind farm is presented. This method is based on the Friedman’s test, which is a nonparametric statistical inference technique, and it uses the information that is collected by the SCADA system from the sensors embedded in the wind turbines in order to carry out the power performance verification of a wind farm. Here, the guaranteed power curve of the wind turbines is used as one more wind turbine of the wind farm under assessment, and a multiple comparison method is used to investigate differences between pairs of wind turbines with respect to their power performance. The proposed method says whether the power performance of the specific wind farm under assessment differs significantly from what would be expected, and it also allows wind farm owners to know whether their wind farm has either a perfect power performance or an acceptable power performance. Finally, the power performance verification of an actual wind farm is carried out. The results of the application of the proposed method showed that the power performance of the specific wind farm under assessment was acceptable.

Highlights

After a wind farm is built, the power performance of each wind turbine must be verified in accordance with the international standard IEC61400-12-1 [1]
If the power performance of the WF is not perfect but there are not significant differences between the power curve of each individual wind turbines (WTs) and the guaranteed power curve (GPC) for at least 80% of the WTs at some α significance level, and the other 20% of the WTs are in operation but they need some minor technical adjustments in order to increase their electricity production in some intervals of wind speed, it is said that the WF has an acceptable power performance
These results show that the power performance of the Villonaco Wind Farm (VWF) was not perfect

Summary

Introduction

After a wind farm is built, the power performance of each wind turbine must be verified in accordance with the international standard IEC61400-12-1 [1]. Attention should be paid to the fact that wind speed measurements collected by the nacelle anemometer do not accurately represent the free-stream wind speeds experienced by the rotor. This problem can be addressed if the measurements can be adjusted [3]. In [4], research was carried out in order to create a model of the power output of each wind turbine during fault-free operation from the data of the SCADA system. Historical wind turbine data were used to construct reference curves of wind power, rotor speed, and blade pitch angle, with wind speed as an input variable. In [8] an effective method for Sensors 2016, 16, 816; doi:10.3390/s16060816 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

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