Articles | Volume 9, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-219-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-219-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
24 Jan 2024
Research article |
| 24 Jan 2024
| 24 Jan 2024
The value of wake steering wind farm flow control in US energy markets
National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Dev Millstein
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Seongeun Jeong
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Paul Fleming
National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Related authors
Joeri A. Frederik, Eric Simley, Kenneth A. Brown, Gopal R. Yalla, Lawrence C. Cheung, and Paul A. Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 755–777, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-755-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-755-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, we present results from advanced computer simulations to determine the effects of applying different control strategies to a small wind farm. We show that when there is variability in wind direction over height, steering the wake of a turbine away from other turbines is the most effective strategy. When this variability is not present, actively changing the pitch angle of the blades to increase turbulence in the wake could be more effective.
Kenneth Brown, Gopal Yalla, Lawrence Cheung, Joeri Frederik, Dan Houck, Nate deVelder, Eric Simley, and Paul Fleming
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Revised manuscript accepted for WES
Short summary
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This paper presents a one half of a companion-paper series that studies strategies to reduce negative aerodynamic interference (i.e., wake effects) between nearby wind turbines in a wind farm. The approach leverages high-fidelity flow simulations of an open-source design for an offshore wind turbine. Complimenting the companion paper’s analysis of the power and loading effects of the wake-control strategies, this article uncovers the underlying fluid-dynamic causes for these effects.
Balthazar Arnoldus Maria Sengers, Andreas Rott, Eric Simley, Michael Sinner, Gerald Steinfeld, and Martin Kühn
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Short summary
Short summary
Unexpected wind direction changes are undesirable, especially when performing wake steering. This study explores whether the yaw controller can benefit from accessing wind direction information before a change reaches the turbine. Results from two models with different fidelities demonstrate that wake steering can indeed benefit from preview information.
Paul Fleming, Michael Sinner, Tom Young, Marine Lannic, Jennifer King, Eric Simley, and Bart Doekemeijer
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 1521–1531, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1521-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1521-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The paper presents a new validation campaign of wake steering at a commercial wind farm. The campaign uses fixed yaw offset positions, rather than a table of optimal yaw offsets dependent on wind direction, to enable comparison with engineering models of wake steering. Additionally, by applying the same offset in beneficial and detrimental conditions, we are able to collect important data for assessing second-order wake model predictions.
Liang Dong, Wai Hou Lio, and Eric Simley
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 1491–1500, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1491-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1491-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper suggests that the impacts of different turbulence models should be considered as uncertainties while evaluating the benefits of lidar-assisted control (LAC) in wind turbine design. The value creation of LAC, evaluated using the Kaimal turbulence model, will be diminished if the Mann turbulence model is used instead. In particular, the difference in coherence is more significant for larger rotors.
Eric Simley, Paul Fleming, Nicolas Girard, Lucas Alloin, Emma Godefroy, and Thomas Duc
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Short summary
Wake steering is a wind farm control strategy in which upstream wind turbines are misaligned with the wind to deflect their low-velocity wakes away from downstream turbines, increasing overall power production. Here, we present results from a two-turbine wake-steering experiment at a commercial wind plant. By analyzing the wind speed dependence of wake steering, we find that the energy gained tends to increase for higher wind speeds because of both the wind conditions and turbine operation.
Alayna Farrell, Jennifer King, Caroline Draxl, Rafael Mudafort, Nicholas Hamilton, Christopher J. Bay, Paul Fleming, and Eric Simley
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 737–758, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-737-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-737-2021, 2021
Short summary
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Most current wind turbine wake models struggle to accurately simulate spatially variant wind conditions at a low computational cost. In this paper, we present an adaptation of NREL's FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) wake model, which calculates wake losses in a heterogeneous flow field using local weather measurement inputs. Two validation studies are presented where the adapted model consistently outperforms previous versions of FLORIS that simulated uniform flow only.
Jennifer King, Paul Fleming, Ryan King, Luis A. Martínez-Tossas, Christopher J. Bay, Rafael Mudafort, and Eric Simley
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 701–714, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-701-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-701-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper highlights the secondary effects of wake steering, including yaw-added wake recovery and secondary steering. These effects enhance the value of wake steering especially when applied to a large wind farm. This paper models these secondary effects using an analytical model proposed in the paper. The results of this model are compared with large-eddy simulations for several cases including 2-turbine, 3-turbine, 5-turbine, and 38-turbine cases.
Peter Brugger, Mithu Debnath, Andrew Scholbrock, Paul Fleming, Patrick Moriarty, Eric Simley, David Jager, Jason Roadman, Mark Murphy, Haohua Zong, and Fernando Porté-Agel
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 1253–1272, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1253-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1253-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
A wind turbine can actively influence its wake by turning the rotor out of the wind direction to deflect the wake away from a downstream wind turbine. This technique was tested in a field experiment at a wind farm, where the inflow and wake were monitored with remote-sensing instruments for the wind speed. The behaviour of the wake deflection agrees with the predictions of two analytical models, and a bias of the wind direction perceived by the yawed wind turbine led to suboptimal power gains.
Paul Fleming, Jennifer King, Eric Simley, Jason Roadman, Andrew Scholbrock, Patrick Murphy, Julie K. Lundquist, Patrick Moriarty, Katherine Fleming, Jeroen van Dam, Christopher Bay, Rafael Mudafort, David Jager, Jason Skopek, Michael Scott, Brady Ryan, Charles Guernsey, and Dan Brake
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 945–958, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-945-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-945-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the results of a field campaign investigating the performance of wake steering applied at a section of a commercial wind farm. It is the second phase of the study for which the first phase was reported in a companion paper (https://wes.copernicus.org/articles/4/273/2019/). The authors implemented wake steering on two turbine pairs and compared results with the latest FLORIS model of wake steering, showing good agreement in overall energy increase.
Eric Simley, Paul Fleming, and Jennifer King
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 451–468, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-451-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-451-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Wind farm wake losses occur when turbines operate in the wakes of upstream turbines. However, wake steering control can be used to deflect wakes away from downstream turbines. A method for including wind direction variability in wake steering simulations is presented here. Controller performance is shown to improve when wind direction variability is accounted for. Furthermore, the importance of wind direction variability is shown for different turbine spacings and atmospheric conditions.
Paul Fleming, Jennifer King, Katherine Dykes, Eric Simley, Jason Roadman, Andrew Scholbrock, Patrick Murphy, Julie K. Lundquist, Patrick Moriarty, Katherine Fleming, Jeroen van Dam, Christopher Bay, Rafael Mudafort, Hector Lopez, Jason Skopek, Michael Scott, Brady Ryan, Charles Guernsey, and Dan Brake
Wind Energ. Sci., 4, 273–285, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-273-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-273-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Wake steering is a form of wind farm control in which turbines use yaw offsets to affect wakes in order to yield an increase in total energy production. In this first phase of a study of wake steering at a commercial wind farm, two turbines implement a schedule of offsets. For two closely spaced turbines, an approximate 14 % increase in energy was measured on the downstream turbine over a 10° sector, with a 4 % increase in energy production of the combined turbine pair.
Mike Optis, Jordan Perr-Sauer, Caleb Philips, Anna E. Craig, Joseph C. Y. Lee, Travis Kemper, Shuangwen Sheng, Eric Simley, Lindy Williams, Monte Lunacek, John Meissner, and M. Jason Fields
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2019-12, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2019-12, 2019
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
As global wind capacity continues to grow, the need for accurate operational analyses of a rapidly growing fleet of wind power plants has increased in proportion. To address this need, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released OpenOA, an open-source codebase for operational analysis of wind farms. It is envisioned that OpenOA will evolve into a widely used codebase supported by a large group of global wind energy experts. This paper provides a summary of OpenOA.
Joeri A. Frederik, Eric Simley, Kenneth A. Brown, Gopal R. Yalla, Lawrence C. Cheung, and Paul A. Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 755–777, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-755-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-755-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, we present results from advanced computer simulations to determine the effects of applying different control strategies to a small wind farm. We show that when there is variability in wind direction over height, steering the wake of a turbine away from other turbines is the most effective strategy. When this variability is not present, actively changing the pitch angle of the blades to increase turbulence in the wake could be more effective.
Kenneth Brown, Gopal Yalla, Lawrence Cheung, Joeri Frederik, Dan Houck, Nate deVelder, Eric Simley, and Paul Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-191, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-191, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a one half of a companion-paper series that studies strategies to reduce negative aerodynamic interference (i.e., wake effects) between nearby wind turbines in a wind farm. The approach leverages high-fidelity flow simulations of an open-source design for an offshore wind turbine. Complimenting the companion paper’s analysis of the power and loading effects of the wake-control strategies, this article uncovers the underlying fluid-dynamic causes for these effects.
Matthew S. Johnson, Sofia D. Hamilton, Seongeun Jeong, Yuyan Cui, Dien Wu, Alex Turner, and Marc Fischer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2152, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2152, 2024
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Satellites, such as NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and -3 (OCO-2/3), retrieve carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations which provide vital information for estimating surface CO2 emissions. Here we investigate the ability of OCO-2/3 retrievals to constrain CO2 emissions for the state of California for the major emission sectors (i.e., fossil fuels, net ecosystem exchange, wildfire).
Balthazar Arnoldus Maria Sengers, Andreas Rott, Eric Simley, Michael Sinner, Gerald Steinfeld, and Martin Kühn
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1693–1710, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1693-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1693-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Unexpected wind direction changes are undesirable, especially when performing wake steering. This study explores whether the yaw controller can benefit from accessing wind direction information before a change reaches the turbine. Results from two models with different fidelities demonstrate that wake steering can indeed benefit from preview information.
Andrew P. J. Stanley, Christopher J. Bay, and Paul Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1341–1350, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1341-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1341-2023, 2023
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Better wind farms can be built by simultaneously optimizing turbine locations and control, which is currently impossible or extremely challenging because of the size of the problem. The authors present a method to determine optimal wind farm control as a function of the turbine locations, which enables turbine layout and control to be optimized together by drastically reducing the size of the problem. In an example, a wind farm's performance improves by 0.8 % when optimized with the new method.
Christopher J. Bay, Paul Fleming, Bart Doekemeijer, Jennifer King, Matt Churchfield, and Rafael Mudafort
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 401–419, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-401-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-401-2023, 2023
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This paper introduces the cumulative-curl wake model that allows for the fast and accurate prediction of wind farm energy production wake interactions. The cumulative-curl model expands several existing wake models to make the simulation of farms more accurate and is implemented in a computationally efficient manner such that it can be used for wind farm layout design and controller development. The model is validated against high-fidelity simulations and data from physical wind farms.
Johan Meyers, Carlo Bottasso, Katherine Dykes, Paul Fleming, Pieter Gebraad, Gregor Giebel, Tuhfe Göçmen, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2271–2306, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2271-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2271-2022, 2022
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We provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and the outstanding challenges in wind farm flow control, thus identifying the key research areas that could further enable commercial uptake and success. To this end, we have structured the discussion on challenges and opportunities into four main areas: (1) insight into control flow physics, (2) algorithms and AI, (3) validation and industry implementation, and (4) integrating control with system design
(co-design).
Michael J. LoCascio, Christopher J. Bay, Majid Bastankhah, Garrett E. Barter, Paul A. Fleming, and Luis A. Martínez-Tossas
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1137–1151, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1137-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1137-2022, 2022
Short summary
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This work introduces the FLOW Estimation and Rose Superposition (FLOWERS) wind turbine wake model. This model analytically integrates the wake over wind directions to provide a time-averaged flow field. This new formulation is used to perform layout optimization. The FLOWERS model provides a smooth flow field over an entire wind plant at fraction of the computational cost of the standard numerical integration approach.
Andrew P. J. Stanley, Christopher Bay, Rafael Mudafort, and Paul Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 741–757, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-741-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-741-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
In wind plants, turbines can be yawed to steer their wakes away from downstream turbines and achieve an increase in plant power. The yaw angles become expensive to solve for in large farms. This paper presents a new method to solve for the optimal turbine yaw angles in a wind plant. The yaw angles are defined as Boolean variables – each turbine is either yawed or nonyawed. With this formulation, most of the gains from wake steering can be reached with a large reduction in computational expense.
Paul Fleming, Michael Sinner, Tom Young, Marine Lannic, Jennifer King, Eric Simley, and Bart Doekemeijer
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 1521–1531, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1521-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1521-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The paper presents a new validation campaign of wake steering at a commercial wind farm. The campaign uses fixed yaw offset positions, rather than a table of optimal yaw offsets dependent on wind direction, to enable comparison with engineering models of wake steering. Additionally, by applying the same offset in beneficial and detrimental conditions, we are able to collect important data for assessing second-order wake model predictions.
Liang Dong, Wai Hou Lio, and Eric Simley
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 1491–1500, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1491-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1491-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper suggests that the impacts of different turbulence models should be considered as uncertainties while evaluating the benefits of lidar-assisted control (LAC) in wind turbine design. The value creation of LAC, evaluated using the Kaimal turbulence model, will be diminished if the Mann turbulence model is used instead. In particular, the difference in coherence is more significant for larger rotors.
Eric Simley, Paul Fleming, Nicolas Girard, Lucas Alloin, Emma Godefroy, and Thomas Duc
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 1427–1453, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1427-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1427-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Wake steering is a wind farm control strategy in which upstream wind turbines are misaligned with the wind to deflect their low-velocity wakes away from downstream turbines, increasing overall power production. Here, we present results from a two-turbine wake-steering experiment at a commercial wind plant. By analyzing the wind speed dependence of wake steering, we find that the energy gained tends to increase for higher wind speeds because of both the wind conditions and turbine operation.
Alayna Farrell, Jennifer King, Caroline Draxl, Rafael Mudafort, Nicholas Hamilton, Christopher J. Bay, Paul Fleming, and Eric Simley
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 737–758, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-737-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-737-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Most current wind turbine wake models struggle to accurately simulate spatially variant wind conditions at a low computational cost. In this paper, we present an adaptation of NREL's FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) wake model, which calculates wake losses in a heterogeneous flow field using local weather measurement inputs. Two validation studies are presented where the adapted model consistently outperforms previous versions of FLORIS that simulated uniform flow only.
Jennifer King, Paul Fleming, Ryan King, Luis A. Martínez-Tossas, Christopher J. Bay, Rafael Mudafort, and Eric Simley
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 701–714, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-701-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-701-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper highlights the secondary effects of wake steering, including yaw-added wake recovery and secondary steering. These effects enhance the value of wake steering especially when applied to a large wind farm. This paper models these secondary effects using an analytical model proposed in the paper. The results of this model are compared with large-eddy simulations for several cases including 2-turbine, 3-turbine, 5-turbine, and 38-turbine cases.
Luis A. Martínez-Tossas, Jennifer King, Eliot Quon, Christopher J. Bay, Rafael Mudafort, Nicholas Hamilton, Michael F. Howland, and Paul A. Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 555–570, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-555-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-555-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper a three-dimensional steady-state solver for flow through a wind farm is developed and validated. The computational cost of the solver is on the order of seconds for large wind farms. The model is validated using high-fidelity simulations and SCADA.
Alison R. Marklein, Deanne Meyer, Marc L. Fischer, Seongeun Jeong, Talha Rafiq, Michelle Carr, and Francesca M. Hopkins
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1151–1166, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1151-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1151-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Dairy cow farms produce half of California's (CA) methane (CH4) emissions. Current CH4 emission inventories lack regional variation in management and are inadequate to assess CH4 mitigation measures. We develop a spatial database of CH4 emissions for CA dairy farms including farm-scale herd demographics and management data. This database is useful to predict CH4 emission reductions from mitigation efforts, to compare with atmospheric CH4 observations and to attribute emissions to specific farms.
Peter Brugger, Mithu Debnath, Andrew Scholbrock, Paul Fleming, Patrick Moriarty, Eric Simley, David Jager, Jason Roadman, Mark Murphy, Haohua Zong, and Fernando Porté-Agel
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 1253–1272, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1253-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1253-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
A wind turbine can actively influence its wake by turning the rotor out of the wind direction to deflect the wake away from a downstream wind turbine. This technique was tested in a field experiment at a wind farm, where the inflow and wake were monitored with remote-sensing instruments for the wind speed. The behaviour of the wake deflection agrees with the predictions of two analytical models, and a bias of the wind direction perceived by the yawed wind turbine led to suboptimal power gains.
Patrick Murphy, Julie K. Lundquist, and Paul Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 1169–1190, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1169-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1169-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
We present and evaluate an improved method for predicting wind turbine power production based on measurements of the wind speed and direction profile across the rotor disk for a wind turbine in complex terrain. By comparing predictions to actual power production from a utility-scale wind turbine, we show this method is more accurate than methods based on hub-height wind speed or surface-based atmospheric characterization.
Paul Fleming, Jennifer King, Eric Simley, Jason Roadman, Andrew Scholbrock, Patrick Murphy, Julie K. Lundquist, Patrick Moriarty, Katherine Fleming, Jeroen van Dam, Christopher Bay, Rafael Mudafort, David Jager, Jason Skopek, Michael Scott, Brady Ryan, Charles Guernsey, and Dan Brake
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 945–958, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-945-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-945-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the results of a field campaign investigating the performance of wake steering applied at a section of a commercial wind farm. It is the second phase of the study for which the first phase was reported in a companion paper (https://wes.copernicus.org/articles/4/273/2019/). The authors implemented wake steering on two turbine pairs and compared results with the latest FLORIS model of wake steering, showing good agreement in overall energy increase.
Eric Simley, Paul Fleming, and Jennifer King
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 451–468, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-451-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-451-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Wind farm wake losses occur when turbines operate in the wakes of upstream turbines. However, wake steering control can be used to deflect wakes away from downstream turbines. A method for including wind direction variability in wake steering simulations is presented here. Controller performance is shown to improve when wind direction variability is accounted for. Furthermore, the importance of wind direction variability is shown for different turbine spacings and atmospheric conditions.
Jennifer Annoni, Christopher Bay, Kathryn Johnson, Emiliano Dall'Anese, Eliot Quon, Travis Kemper, and Paul Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 4, 355–368, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-355-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-355-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Typically, turbines do not share information with nearby turbines in a wind farm. Relying on a single turbine sensor on the back of a turbine nacelle can lead to large errors in yaw misalignment or excessive yawing due to noisy sensor measurements. The wind farm consensus control approach in this paper shows the benefits of sharing information between nearby turbines by computing a robust estimate of the wind direction using noisy sensor information from these neighboring turbines.
Paul Fleming, Jennifer King, Katherine Dykes, Eric Simley, Jason Roadman, Andrew Scholbrock, Patrick Murphy, Julie K. Lundquist, Patrick Moriarty, Katherine Fleming, Jeroen van Dam, Christopher Bay, Rafael Mudafort, Hector Lopez, Jason Skopek, Michael Scott, Brady Ryan, Charles Guernsey, and Dan Brake
Wind Energ. Sci., 4, 273–285, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-273-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-273-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Wake steering is a form of wind farm control in which turbines use yaw offsets to affect wakes in order to yield an increase in total energy production. In this first phase of a study of wake steering at a commercial wind farm, two turbines implement a schedule of offsets. For two closely spaced turbines, an approximate 14 % increase in energy was measured on the downstream turbine over a 10° sector, with a 4 % increase in energy production of the combined turbine pair.
Christopher J. Bay, Jennifer King, Paul Fleming, Rafael Mudafort, and Luis A. Martínez-Tossas
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2019-19, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2019-19, 2019
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
This work details a new low-fidelity wake model to be used in determining operational strategies for wind turbines. With the additional physics that this model captures, optimizations have found new control strategies that provide greater increases in performance than previously determined, and these performance increases have been confirmed in high-fidelity simulations. As such, this model can be used in the design and optimization of future wind farms and operational schemes.
Mike Optis, Jordan Perr-Sauer, Caleb Philips, Anna E. Craig, Joseph C. Y. Lee, Travis Kemper, Shuangwen Sheng, Eric Simley, Lindy Williams, Monte Lunacek, John Meissner, and M. Jason Fields
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2019-12, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2019-12, 2019
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
As global wind capacity continues to grow, the need for accurate operational analyses of a rapidly growing fleet of wind power plants has increased in proportion. To address this need, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released OpenOA, an open-source codebase for operational analysis of wind farms. It is envisioned that OpenOA will evolve into a widely used codebase supported by a large group of global wind energy experts. This paper provides a summary of OpenOA.
Kieran Brophy, Heather Graven, Alistair J. Manning, Emily White, Tim Arnold, Marc L. Fischer, Seongeun Jeong, Xinguang Cui, and Matthew Rigby
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2991–3006, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2991-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2991-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We investigate potential errors and uncertainties related to the spatial and temporal prior representation of emissions and modelled atmospheric transport for the inversion of California's fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Our results indicate that uncertainties in posterior total state fossil fuel CO2 estimates arising from the choice of prior emissions or atmospheric transport model are on the order of 15 % or less for the ground-based network in California we consider.
Luis A. Martínez-Tossas, Jennifer Annoni, Paul A. Fleming, and Matthew J. Churchfield
Wind Energ. Sci., 4, 127–138, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-127-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-4-127-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
A new control-oriented model is developed to compute the wake of a wind turbine under yaw. The model uses a simplified version of the Navier–Stokes equation with assumptions. Good agreement is found between the model-proposed and large eddy simulations of a wind turbine in yaw.
Jennifer Annoni, Paul Fleming, Andrew Scholbrock, Jason Roadman, Scott Dana, Christiane Adcock, Fernando Porte-Agel, Steffen Raach, Florian Haizmann, and David Schlipf
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 819–831, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-819-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-819-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper addresses the modeling aspect of wind farm control. To implement successful wind farm controls, a suitable model has to be used that captures the relevant physics. This paper addresses three different wake models that can be used for controls and compares these models with lidar field data from a utility-scale turbine.
Paul Fleming, Jennifer Annoni, Matthew Churchfield, Luis A. Martinez-Tossas, Kenny Gruchalla, Michael Lawson, and Patrick Moriarty
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 243–255, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-243-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-243-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper investigates the role of flow structures in wind farm control through yaw misalignment. A pair of counter-rotating vortices is shown to be important in deforming the shape of the wake. Further, we demonstrate that the vortex structures created in wake steering can enable a greater change power generation than currently modeled in control-oriented models. We propose that wind farm controllers can be made more effective if designed to take advantage of these effects.
Rick Damiani, Scott Dana, Jennifer Annoni, Paul Fleming, Jason Roadman, Jeroen van Dam, and Katherine Dykes
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 173–189, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-173-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-173-2018, 2018
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The paper discusses load effects on wind turbines operating under misaligned-flow operations, which is part of a strategy to optimize wind-power-plant power production, where upwind turbines can be rotated off the wind axis to redirect their wakes. Analytical simplification, aeroelastic simulations, and field data from an instrumented turbine are compared and interpreted to provide an informed picture on the loads for various components.
Paul Fleming, Jennifer Annoni, Jigar J. Shah, Linpeng Wang, Shreyas Ananthan, Zhijun Zhang, Kyle Hutchings, Peng Wang, Weiguo Chen, and Lin Chen
Wind Energ. Sci., 2, 229–239, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2-229-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2-229-2017, 2017
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In this paper, a field test of wake-steering control is presented. In the campaign, an array of turbines within an operating commercial offshore wind farm have the normal yaw controller modified to implement wake steering according to a yaw control strategy. Results indicate that, within the certainty afforded by the data, the wake-steering controller was successful in increasing power capture.
Sha Feng, Thomas Lauvaux, Sally Newman, Preeti Rao, Ravan Ahmadov, Aijun Deng, Liza I. Díaz-Isaac, Riley M. Duren, Marc L. Fischer, Christoph Gerbig, Kevin R. Gurney, Jianhua Huang, Seongeun Jeong, Zhijin Li, Charles E. Miller, Darragh O'Keeffe, Risa Patarasuk, Stanley P. Sander, Yang Song, Kam W. Wong, and Yuk L. Yung
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9019–9045, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9019-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9019-2016, 2016
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We developed a high-resolution land–atmosphere modelling system for urban CO2 emissions over the LA Basin. We evaluated various model configurations, FFCO2 products, and the impact of the model resolution. FFCO2 emissions outpace the atmospheric model resolution to represent the CO2 concentration variability across the basin. A novel forward model approach is presented to evaluate the surface measurement network, reinforcing the importance of using high-resolution emission products.
Related subject area
Thematic area: Dynamics and control | Topic: Wind farm control
A dynamic open-source model to investigate wake dynamics in response to wind farm flow control strategies
Load assessment of a wind farm considering negative and positive yaw misalignment for wake steering
Modular deep learning approach for wind farm power forecasting and wake loss prediction
Comparison of wind farm control strategies under realistic offshore wind conditions: turbine quantities of interest
Wind turbine wake detection and characterisation utilising blade loads and SCADA data: a generalised approach
Spectral proper orthogonal decomposition of active wake mixing dynamics in a stable atmospheric boundary layer
Development and validation of a hybrid data-driven model-based wake steering controller and its application at a utility-scale wind plant
Evaluating the potential of a wake steering co-design for wind farm layout optimization through a tailored genetic algorithm
Integer programming for optimal yaw control of wind farms
On the importance of wind predictions in wake steering optimization
On the power and control of a misaligned rotor – beyond the cosine law
Dynamic wind farm flow control using free-vortex wake models
Towards real-time optimal control of wind farms using large-eddy simulations
Sensitivity analysis of wake steering optimisation for wind farm power maximisation
The dynamic coupling between the pulse wake mixing strategy and floating wind turbines
Validation of an interpretable data-driven wake model using lidar measurements from a field wake steering experiment
Wind farm flow control: prospects and challenges
Large-eddy simulation of a wind-turbine array subjected to active yaw control
FarmConners market showcase results: wind farm flow control considering electricity prices
The revised FLORIDyn model: implementation of heterogeneous flow and the Gaussian wake
Multifidelity multiobjective optimization for wake-steering strategies
Evaluation of different power tracking operating strategies considering turbine loading and power dynamics
A physically interpretable data-driven surrogate model for wake steering
Experimental analysis of the effect of dynamic induction control on a wind turbine wake
Marcus Becker, Maxime Lejeune, Philippe Chatelain, Dries Allaerts, Rafael Mudafort, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 1055–1075, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1055-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1055-2025, 2025
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Established turbine wake models are steady-state. This paper presents an open-source dynamic wake modeling framework that complements established steady-state wake models with dynamics. It is advantageous over steady-state wake models to describe wind farm power and energy over shorter periods. The model enables researchers to investigate the effectiveness of wind farm flow control strategies. This leads to a better utilization of wind farms and allows them to be used to their fullest extent.
Regis Thedin, Garrett Barter, Jason Jonkman, Rafael Mudafort, Christopher J. Bay, Kelsey Shaler, and Jasper Kreeft
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 1033–1053, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1033-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1033-2025, 2025
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We investigate asymmetries in terms of power performance and fatigue loading on a five-turbine wind farm subject to wake steering strategies. Both the yaw misalignment angle and the wind direction were varied from negative to positive. We highlight conditions in which fatigue loading is lower while still maintaining good power gains and show that a partial wake is the source of the asymmetries observed. We provide recommendations in terms of yaw misalignment angles for a given wind direction.
Stijn Ally, Timothy Verstraeten, Pieter-Jan Daems, Ann Nowé, and Jan Helsen
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 779–812, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-779-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-779-2025, 2025
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Wind farms are crucial for a sustainable energy future. However, their power can fluctuate significantly due to changing weather conditions, which complexly affect their power generation. This paper presents a novel machine-learning-based method to enhance wind farm power predictions, enabling improved power scheduling, trading and grid balancing. This makes wind power more valuable and easier to integrate into the energy system.
Joeri A. Frederik, Eric Simley, Kenneth A. Brown, Gopal R. Yalla, Lawrence C. Cheung, and Paul A. Fleming
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 755–777, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-755-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-755-2025, 2025
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In this paper, we present results from advanced computer simulations to determine the effects of applying different control strategies to a small wind farm. We show that when there is variability in wind direction over height, steering the wake of a turbine away from other turbines is the most effective strategy. When this variability is not present, actively changing the pitch angle of the blades to increase turbulence in the wake could be more effective.
Piotr Fojcik, Edward Hart, and Emil Hedevang
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2025-17, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2025-17, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
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Increasing the efficiency of wind farms can be achieved via reducing the impact of wakes: flow regions with lower wind speed occurring downwind from turbines. This work describes training and validation of a novel method for estimation of the wake effects impacting a turbine. The results show that for most tested wind conditions, the developed model is capable of robust detection of wake presence, and accurate characterisation of its properties. Further validation and improvements are planned.
Gopal R. Yalla, Kenneth Brown, Lawrence Cheung, Dan Houck, Nathaniel deVelder, and Nicholas Hamilton
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2025-14, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2025-14, 2025
Revised manuscript under review for WES
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When wind reaches the first set of turbines in a wind farm, energy is extracted, reducing the energy available for downstream turbines. This study examines emerging technologies aimed at re-energizing the wind between turbines in a wind farm to improve overall power production. Optimizing these technologies depends on understanding complex features of the atmosphere and the wakes behind turbines, which is accomplished using high fidelity computer simulations and data analysis techniques.
Peter Bachant, Peter Ireland, Brian Burrows, Chi Qiao, James Duncan, Danian Zheng, and Mohit Dua
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 2235–2259, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-2235-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-2235-2024, 2024
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Intentional misalignment of upstream turbines in wind plants in order to steer wakes away from downstream turbines has been a topic of research interest for years but has not yet achieved widespread commercial adoption. We deploy one such wake steering system to a utility-scale wind plant and then create a model to predict plant behavior and enable successful control. We apply calibrations to a physics-based model and use machine learning to correct its outputs to improve predictive capability.
Matteo Baricchio, Pieter M. O. Gebraad, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 2113–2132, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-2113-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-2113-2024, 2024
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Wake steering can be integrated into wind farm layout optimization through a co-design approach. This study estimates the potential of this method for a wide range of realistic conditions, adopting a tailored genetic algorithm and novel geometric yaw relations. A gain in the annual energy yield between 0.3 % and 0.4 % is obtained for a 16-tubrine farm, and a multi-objective implementation is used to limit loss in the case that wake steering is not used during farm operation.
Felix Bestehorn, Florian Bürgel, Christian Kirches, Sebastian Stiller, and Andreas M. Tillmann
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-120, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-120, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
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Wind turbines organized in wind farms are an important electric power source. Thereby, each wind turbine causes a so-called wake with a reduced wind speed. This can influence following wind turbines and is an opportunity to optimize the operation of the complete wind farm, i.e., we steer the wakes to increase the total power output of the wind farm. In order to do this efficiently, we exploit repetitive structures within a wind farm.
Elie Kadoche, Pascal Bianchi, Florence Carton, Philippe Ciblat, and Damien Ernst
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 1577–1594, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1577-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1577-2024, 2024
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This work proposes a new wind farm controller based on wind predictions and conducts a synthetic sensitivity analysis of wake steering and the variations of the wind direction. For wind turbines that can rotate from −15 to 15° every 10 min, if the wind direction changes by more than 7.34° every 10 min, it is important to consider future wind data in a steady-state yaw control optimization.
Simone Tamaro, Filippo Campagnolo, and Carlo L. Bottasso
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 1547–1575, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1547-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1547-2024, 2024
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We develop a new simple model to predict power losses incurred by a wind turbine when it yaws out of the wind. The model reveals the effects of a number of rotor design parameters and how the turbine is governed when it yaws. The model exhibits an excellent agreement with large eddy simulations and wind tunnel measurements. We showcase the capabilities of the model by deriving the power-optimal yaw strategy for a single turbine and for a cluster of wake-interacting turbines.
Maarten J. van den Broek, Marcus Becker, Benjamin Sanderse, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 721–740, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-721-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-721-2024, 2024
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Wind turbine wakes negatively affect wind farm performance as they impinge on downstream rotors. Wake steering reduces these losses by redirecting wakes using yaw misalignment of the upstream rotor. We develop a novel control strategy based on model predictions to implement wake steering under time-varying conditions. The controller is tested in a high-fidelity simulation environment and improves wind farm power output compared to a state-of-the-art reference controller.
Nick Janssens and Johan Meyers
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 65–95, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-65-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-65-2024, 2024
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Proper wind farm control may vastly contribute to Europe's plan to go carbon neutral. However, current strategies don't account for turbine–wake interactions affecting power extraction. High-fidelity models (e.g., LES) are needed to accurately model this but are considered too slow in practice. By coarsening the resolution, we were able to design an efficient LES-based controller with real-time potential. This may allow us to bridge the gap towards practical wind farm control in the near future.
Filippo Gori, Sylvain Laizet, and Andrew Wynn
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1425–1451, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1425-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1425-2023, 2023
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Wake steering is a promising strategy to increase the power output of modern wind farms by mitigating the negative effects of aerodynamic interaction among turbines. As farm layouts grow in size to meet renewable targets, the complexity of wake steering optimisation increases too. With the objective of enabling robust and predictable wake steering solutions, this study investigates the sensitivity of wake steering optimisation for three different farm layouts with increasing complexity levels.
Daniel van den Berg, Delphine de Tavernier, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 849–864, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-849-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-849-2023, 2023
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Wind turbines placed in farms interact with their wake, lowering the power production of the wind farm. This can be mitigated using so-called wake mixing techniques. This work investigates the coupling between the pulse wake mixing technique and the motion of floating wind turbines using the pulse. Frequency response experiments and time domain simulations show that extra movement is undesired and that the
optimalexcitation frequency is heavily platform dependent.
Balthazar Arnoldus Maria Sengers, Gerald Steinfeld, Paul Hulsman, and Martin Kühn
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 747–770, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-747-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-747-2023, 2023
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The optimal misalignment angles for wake steering are determined using wake models. Although mostly analytical, data-driven models have recently shown promising results. This study validates a previously proposed data-driven model with results from a field experiment using lidar measurements. In a comparison with a state-of-the-art analytical model, it shows systematically more accurate estimates of the available power. Also when using only commonly available input data, it gives good results.
Johan Meyers, Carlo Bottasso, Katherine Dykes, Paul Fleming, Pieter Gebraad, Gregor Giebel, Tuhfe Göçmen, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2271–2306, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2271-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2271-2022, 2022
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We provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and the outstanding challenges in wind farm flow control, thus identifying the key research areas that could further enable commercial uptake and success. To this end, we have structured the discussion on challenges and opportunities into four main areas: (1) insight into control flow physics, (2) algorithms and AI, (3) validation and industry implementation, and (4) integrating control with system design
(co-design).
Mou Lin and Fernando Porté-Agel
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2215–2230, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2215-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2215-2022, 2022
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Large-eddy simulation (LES) is a widely used method to study wind turbine flow. To save computational resources, the turbine-inducing forces in LES are often modelled by parametrisations. We validate three widely used turbine parametrisations in LES in different yaw and offset configurations with wind tunnel measurements, and we find that, in comparison with other parametrisations, the blade element actuator disk model strikes a good balance of accuracy and computational cost.
Konstanze Kölle, Tuhfe Göçmen, Irene Eguinoa, Leonardo Andrés Alcayaga Román, Maria Aparicio-Sanchez, Ju Feng, Johan Meyers, Vasilis Pettas, and Ishaan Sood
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2181–2200, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2181-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2181-2022, 2022
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The paper studies wind farm flow control (WFFC) in simulations with variable electricity prices. The results indicate that considering the electricity price in the operational strategy can be beneficial with respect to the gained income compared to focusing on the power gain only. Moreover, revenue maximization by balancing power production and structural load reduction is demonstrated at the example of a single wind turbine.
Marcus Becker, Bastian Ritter, Bart Doekemeijer, Daan van der Hoek, Ulrich Konigorski, Dries Allaerts, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2163–2179, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2163-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2163-2022, 2022
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In this paper we present a revised dynamic control-oriented wind farm model. The model can simulate turbine wake behaviour in heterogeneous and changing wind conditions at a very low computational cost. It utilizes a three-dimensional turbine wake model which also allows capturing vertical wind speed differences. The model could be used to maximise the power generation of with farms, even during events like a wind direction change. It is publicly available and open for further development.
Julian Quick, Ryan N. King, Garrett Barter, and Peter E. Hamlington
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1941–1955, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1941-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1941-2022, 2022
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Wake steering is an emerging wind power plant control strategy where upstream turbines are intentionally yawed out of alignment with the incoming wind, thereby steering wakes away from downstream turbines. Trade-offs between the gains in power production and fatigue loads induced by this control strategy are the subject of continuing investigation. In this study, we present an optimization approach for efficiently exploring the trade-offs between power and loading during wake steering.
Florian Pöschke and Horst Schulte
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1593–1604, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1593-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1593-2022, 2022
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The paper compares two different strategies for wind turbine control when following a power command. A model-based control scheme for a 5 MW wind turbine is designed, and a comparison in terms of the mechanical loading and the attainable power dynamics is drawn based on simulation studies. Reduced-order models suitable for integration into an upper-level control design are discussed. The dependence of the turbine behavior on the chosen strategy is illustrated and analyzed.
Balthazar Arnoldus Maria Sengers, Matthias Zech, Pim Jacobs, Gerald Steinfeld, and Martin Kühn
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1455–1470, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1455-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1455-2022, 2022
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Wake steering aims to redirect the wake away from a downstream turbine. This study explores the potential of a data-driven surrogate model whose equations can be interpreted physically. It estimates wake characteristics from measurable input variables by utilizing a simple linear model. The model shows encouraging results in estimating available power in the far wake, with significant improvements over currently used analytical models in conditions where wake steering is deemed most effective.
Daan van der Hoek, Joeri Frederik, Ming Huang, Fulvio Scarano, Carlos Simao Ferreira, and Jan-Willem van Wingerden
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1305–1320, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1305-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1305-2022, 2022
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The paper presents a wind tunnel experiment where dynamic induction control was implemented on a small-scale turbine. By periodically changing the pitch angle of the blades, the low-velocity turbine wake is perturbed, and hence it recovers at a faster rate. Small particles were released in the flow and subsequently recorded with a set of high-speed cameras. This allowed us to reconstruct the flow behind the turbine and investigate the effect of dynamic induction control on the wake.
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Short summary
Wake steering is a wind farm control technology in which turbines are misaligned with the wind to deflect their wakes away from downstream turbines, increasing total power production. In this paper, we use a wind farm control model and historical electricity prices to assess the potential increase in market value from wake steering for 15 US wind plants. For most plants, we find that the relative increase in revenue from wake steering exceeds the relative increase in energy production.
Wake steering is a wind farm control technology in which turbines are misaligned with the wind...
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