Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-34
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-34
04 Apr 2023
 | 04 Apr 2023
Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal WES.

A method to correct for the effect of blockage and wakes on power performance measurements

Alessandro Sebastiani, James Bleeg, and Alfredo Peña

Abstract. Wind turbine power performance measurements often occur at the perimeter of a wind farm, where the wind flow is subject to blockage effects, which might impact the measured power performance. We perform Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations of a wind farm with five rows of twenty turbines each, operating in a conventionally neutral boundary layer, to evaluate whether the power performances measured for turbines in the upstream row would differ from that of a turbine operating in isolation under the same inflow conditions. We simulate the power performance measurements with both meteorological masts and nacelle-mounted lidars. Results show that blockage effects have an impact on the measured power performance of the wind farm turbines, with measured power coefficient varying more than 1 % relative to what is measured for the isolated turbine. In this work, we propose a method to correct for the effect of blockage on power performance measurements, yielding a curve that is more consistent with how power curves in energy yield analyses are defined and used, and thereby allowing for more useful comparisons between these curves. Our numerical results indicate that the correction method greatly reduces blockage-related variance and bias in the measured power curves. While flow modelling can be used to calculate the correction factors for actual power performance measurements in the field, we additionally show how some of the correction factors can be derived from lidar measurements. Finally, the numerical results suggest that the method could also be used to correct for the effect of wakes on power performance measurements conducted on turbines located downstream of the leading row.

Alessandro Sebastiani et al.

Status: open (until 10 Jun 2023)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on wes-2023-34', Nicolai Gayle Nygaard, 05 May 2023 reply

Alessandro Sebastiani et al.

Alessandro Sebastiani et al.

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Short summary
The power curve of a wind turbine indicates the turbine power output in relation to the wind speed. Therefore, power curves are critically important to estimate the production of future wind farms as well as to assess whether operating wind farms are functioning correctly. Since power curves are often measured in wind farms, they might be affected by the interactions between the turbines. We show that these effects are not negligible and present a method to correct for them.