Field Test Results from Lidar Measured Yaw Control for Improved Power Capture with the NREL Controls Advanced Research Turbine

This paper describes field tests of a light detection and ranging (lidar) device placed forward looking on the nacelle of a wind turbine and used as a wind direction measurement to directly control the yaw position of a wind turbine. Conventionally, a wind turbine controls its yaw direction using a nacelle-mounted wind vane. If there is a bias in the measurement from the nacelle-mounted wind vane, a reduction in power production will be observed. This bias could be caused by a number of issues such as: poor calibration, electromagnetic interference, rotor wake, or other effects. With a lidar mounted on the nacelle, a measurement of the wind could be made upstream of the wind turbine where the wind is not being influenced by the rotor’s wake or induction zone. Field tests were conducted with the lidar measured yaw system and the nacelle wind vane measured yaw system. Results show that a lidar can be used to effectively measure the yaw error of the wind turbine, and for this experiment, they also showed an improvement in power capture because of reduced yaw misalignment when compared to the nacelle wind vane measured yaw system.

[1]  Paul Fleming,et al.  Increased Power Capture by Rotor Speed–Dependent Yaw Control of Wind Turbines , 2013 .

[2]  Niels N. Sørensen,et al.  Yaw aerodynamics analyzed with three codes in comparison with experiment , 2003 .

[3]  Alan Wright,et al.  Field-test results using a nacelle-mounted lidar for improving wind turbine power capture by reducing yaw misalignment , 2014 .

[4]  Morten Hartvig Hansen,et al.  Potential of power gain with improved yaw alignment , 2015 .

[5]  David Schlipf,et al.  Field Testing LIDAR Based Feed-Forward Controls on the NREL Controls Advanced Research Turbine , 2013 .

[6]  Martin Kühn,et al.  Prospects of optimization of energy production by LIDAR assisted control of wind turbines , 2011 .

[7]  Jan-Willem van Wingerden,et al.  Using particle filters to track wind turbine wakes for improved wind plant controls , 2014, 2014 American Control Conference.

[8]  Stefan Ivanell,et al.  The upstream flow of a wind turbine: blockage effect , 2011 .

[9]  Nicolai Gayle Nygaard,et al.  Wakes in very large wind farms and the effect of neighbouring wind farms , 2014 .

[10]  Paul Fleming,et al.  Rotor Speed Dependent Yaw Control of Wind Turbines Based on Empirical Data , 2012 .

[11]  Torben Mikkelsen,et al.  Theoretical and experimental signal-to-noise ratio assessment in new direction sensing continuous-wave Doppler lidar , 2014 .

[12]  Jason R. Marden,et al.  A data-driven model for wind plant power optimization by yaw control , 2014, 2014 American Control Conference.

[13]  L.Y. Pao,et al.  Control of variable-speed wind turbines: standard and adaptive techniques for maximizing energy capture , 2006, IEEE Control Systems.

[14]  Kathryn E. Johnson,et al.  Evaluating techniques for redirecting turbine wakes using SOWFA , 2014 .