OPWIND: Operational Control for Wind Power Plants

Wind power is built today mainly as large wind farms or clusters of wind farms, offshore or on land. Attention is on environmental impact, reducing costs and increasing profitability. This can be achieved through optimizing the design, the operation and maintenance, and the control of the wind farm. The focus of OPWIND is the latter. As an example, in case the electricity price is low it may be profitable to reduce the production from the most heavily loaded turbines to save on maintenance. Such control actions can however only be rationally made by application of real time models of wind farm and wind flow interaction. OPWIND addresses this research challenge to develop knowledge and tools for optimized operation and control of wind power plants, reducing costs and increasing profitability. The work is organized into four work packages (WP): WP1 has developed a detailed numerical simulation model of a wind power plant for analysis and control design. In WP2 models of wind flow inside wind farms has been developed. The results of WP1 and WP2 has been combined in WP3 to constitute model-based control systems for wind farms that provides for optimized operation. In WP4, the models have been validated by case studies in dialogue with the user partners. OPWIND has been carried out according to plan (2017-2021) headed by SINTEF Energi and with SINTEF Digital and NTNU as research partners. The user partners in the project have been Equinor, Kongsberg Digital, Vestas, Vattenfall, and Norwegian Meteorological Institute. DTU (DK), University of Strathclyde (UK) and NREL (USA) has participated in a Scientific Advisory Committee of the project as associated research partners contributing in scientific discussions and exchange of open results. OPWIND is coordinated with relevant international activity such as the EU R&D project TotalControl, FarmConners, ConWind, EERA JP Wind Energy and IEA Wind Task 37 Wind Energy Systems Engineering. SINTEF Energy is participating in the management of these activities and provides coordination with OPWIND. The project has resulted in advancement of the knowledge and tools for optimizing the operation of wind farms. In total the project has published 21 scientific peer-reviewed articles and 17 reports, presentations and media contributions. The results give a basis for continued research and innovation within the field of wind farm control, but also wind farm design. This is because the underlaying models for optimizing wind farm control are equally relevant for optimizing wind farm design. Wind farm design and operation are both highly relevant topics for wind farm developers, be it for wind farms on land or offshore, in Norway or internationally. The models and tools developed can be applied in projects with industry to optimize design and operation of wind farms, and they can be further developed in research projects. Ultimately, the impact of the project is optimized wind power plants, reducing costs and accelerate deployment to provide clean energy and fight climate change. The competence developed in OPWIND can be utilized as an important competitive element to win contracts on wind farm development and operation, and give large value creation for commercial companies and the society in general.

The project has resulted in advancement of the knowledge and tools for optimizing the operation of wind farms. The results are at the international forefront of research and published in internationally acclaimed peer-reviewed journals. It gives a basis for continued research and innovation within the field of wind farm design and control. These are both highly relevant topics for wind farm developers, on land or offshore, in Norway or internationally. The models and tools developed can be applied in projects with industry to optimize design and operation of wind farms, and they can be developed in research projects. Ultimately, the impact of the project is optimized wind power plants, reducing costs and accelerate deployment to provide clean energy and fight climate change. The competence developed can be utilized as an important competitive element to win wind farm contracts and give large value creation for commercial companies and the society in general.

Wind energy are today developed mainly as large wind farms or clusters of wind farms, offshore or land-based. Attention is on reducing costs and increasing profitability. This can be achieved through design optimization, but also by optimizing the operation and maintenance. The focus of OPWIND is the latter. State-of-the-art wind power plants (WPP = wind farm or cluster of wind farms) apply advanced monitoring and control functions, but not optimized in terms of at all times maximizing the power production balanced against turbine loading and electricity price. This latter requires the use of real time dynamic models of WPP and wind flow interaction, and combining these with monitoring data of WPP operation to calculate the optimized dispatching of relevant control set-points between the wind turbines. OPWIND will address this research challenge to develop knowledge and tools for optimized operation and control of wind power plants, reducing costs and increasing profitability. The work is organized into four work packages each addressing a distinct research challenge: WP1 will develop a scalable state-space model of a wind power plant, for modal analysis, simulation, state observation, and control design at the plant level. In WP2 research will be undertaken to bridge the gap between high fidelity atmospheric simulations and real-time applications. Tools developed in WP1 and WP2 will be integrated in WP3 to deliver a unified atmosphere/wind power plant model for analysis and real-time control. In WP4, the models are applied and validated by case studies in dialogue with the user partners, possibly including an experimental campaign at a wind test site. OPWIND is timely and highly relevant. It will link with the international research community through EERA JP wind and IEA Wind Task 37, and it will create useful results for society at large and the user partners in particular, including wind farm operators, service providers and OEMs.