Active power control of wind farms: an instantaneous approach on waked conditions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a closed-loop control method for wind farms that improves active power regulation and stability under waked conditions using CFD simulations, considering turbine delays and power distribution effects.

Contribution

It proposes a novel control approach that enhances power tracking and load management in wind farms under complex wake interactions and limited power scenarios.

Findings

Improved power production with closed-loop control

Enhanced power tracking with axial-induction distribution

Better load distribution and turbine saturation management

Abstract

This paper presents a closed-loop controller for wind farms to provide active power control services using a high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics based wind plant simulator. The proposed design enhances power tracking stability and allows for simple understanding, where each turbine is considered as a pure time-delay system. The paper investigates the control performance with different nominal power distributions in a fully waked condition and limited power availability. Results demonstrate the improvement in power production obtained by closing the control loop, compared to greedy operation. Additionally, power tracking capabilities are enhanced with a nominal power distribution favored by axial-induction, as well as the occurrence of turbine saturation and the distribution of loads.