A New Wind Farm Active Power Control Strategy to Boost Tracking Margins in High-demand Scenarios

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel active power control strategy for wind farms that enhances tracking accuracy and reduces fatigue loading during high-demand scenarios by combining open-loop scheduling with feedback correction.

Contribution

It proposes a new control architecture integrating wake steering and induction control, outperforming traditional PI controllers in high-fidelity simulations.

Findings

Reduces local saturation events

Improves tracking accuracy

Limits fatigue loading

Abstract

This paper presents a new active power control algorithm designed to maximize the power reserve of the individual turbines in a farm, in order to improve the tracking accuracy of a power reference signal. The control architecture is based on an open-loop optimal set-point scheduler combined with a feedback corrector, which actively regulate power by both wake steering and induction control. The methodology is compared with a state-of-the-art PI-based controller by means of high-fidelity LES simulations. The new wind farm controller reduces the occurrence of local saturation events, thereby improving the overall tracking accuracy, and limits fatigue loading in conditions of relatively high-power demand.