Expert Elicitation on Wind Farm Control

TL;DR

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in wind farm control, highlighting research challenges, expert consensus, and the need for validation campaigns, focusing on improving performance, reliability, and environmental impact.

Contribution

It provides an overview of wind farm control research, summarizes expert opinions, and identifies key challenges and gaps for future investigation.

Findings

Expert surveys reveal a demand for validation campaigns.

Mechanical loads and uncertainties are major research gaps.

Consensus exists on the importance of control for performance and environmental impact.

Abstract

Wind farm control is an active and growing field of research in which the control actions of individual turbines in a farm are coordinated, accounting for inter-turbine aerodynamic interaction, to improve the overall performance of the wind farm and to reduce costs. The primary objectives of wind farm control include increasing power production, reducing turbine loads, and providing electricity grid support services. Additional objectives include improving reliability or reducing external impacts to the environment and communities. In 2019, a European research project (FarmConners) was started with the main goal of providing an overview of the state-of-the-art in wind farm control, identifying consensus of research findings, data sets, and best practices, providing a summary of the main research challenges, and establishing a roadmap on how to address these challenges. Complementary to the FarmConners project, an IEA Wind Topical Expert Meeting (TEM) and two rounds of surveys among experts were performed. From these events we can clearly identify an interest in more public validation campaigns. Additionally, a deeper understanding of the mechanical loads and the uncertainties concerning the effectiveness of wind farm control are considered two major research gaps.