Wind Turbine

Control and
Electrical Aspects
Experimental Determination of Power Curve
 Averaging period 1 to 10 minutes.
10 minutes period preferable as it lies in the
“spectral gap”
 U and P averaged and put into “bins”
 Ensemble average of data in each bin
calculated
Results plotted
VanDerHoven

 5
4.5
VanDerHoven
4
Normalised Variance.

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Log (Base 10) of time scale, cycles per hour
 The Power Curve
Idealised Power Curve for a 250kW Turbine
300
Rated Cut-out
250

200
Power (kW)

150

100

50
Cut-in

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Wind Speed (m/s)

Figure 1: An idealised power curve for a modern HAWT

Choice of Wind turbine Power Curve Parameters
 Given
a) the wind structure for a specific site
(e.g. the shaping factor and scale factor for the
Weibull distribution) and
b) a turbine with a specific CP - curve,
 We wish to maximise the energy extraction.
c) How do we chose Uci, Ur, Uco and ?
 Also, if we were to operate at variable speed

between Uci and Ur, how much extra energy we

would expect to capture over the year?
 Simplified analysis: no losses or mechanical stresses
considered
For a turbine operating at fixed speed
 Optimise Uci, Ur and Uco and the speed of rotation, .
 will determine the optimum gearbox ratio.
 Let N be the multiple of the site average wind speed at
which the fixed speed wind
turbine runs at optimum
tip speed ratio, opt. Then

R
 opt 
N U av
To maximise
Outcome
energy capture the following give ball-park
guidance:

a) For fixed speed operation

1. Optimisation parameter N  1.5
2. There is not much gain in selecting Uci < 0.6Uav
3. There is not match gain in selecting Ur >2Uav
4. There is not much gain in selecting Uco > 3.5Uav

b) Variable speed operation between Uci and Ur:

 Energy capture ~110% of that captured by a fixed

speed machine.
 However, additional losses in power electronics reduce
this to + 5 to7%. Complexity? Other benefits?
Regualation of power between cut-in and rated
wind speed
 Constant Speed

 Majority of WT’s are used for electricity

generation
 Need to generate at constant frequency
 Induction and Synchronous generators
connected to fixed frequency grid rotate at
constant speed
 Aerodynamic implications:
(a) Lower all year efficiency
(b) Stall regulation requires constant speed
 Two fixed speeds
Variable Speed

 Variable Speed results in higher energy

efficiency between Uci and Ur
 Requires an electric frequency conversion

interface
 Acts as a flywheel for energy storage during gusts

 Provides better power quality

 Power electronic converter adds to cost and

complexity. Reduced reliability?

 Most MW size wind turbines
Figure 13: The power output from a fixed WT and a variable speed WT at the same site
Regulation
of power
between
rated and
cut-out
wind speed
Pitch
regulation
Stall Regulation
Synchronous Generator
Speed of synchronous generators

 Relationship linking the synchronous speed N S in revolutions per

second to frequency f’ and number of pole pairs p is:
N S =f/p

p Ns
1 3000
2 1500
3 1000
4 750
/ /
200 15
Asynchronous or induction generator
 Synchronous or asynchronous (induction)
  s   r 
s motoring generating
s 

max

 SM  -SM  slip,s
0 s 2s 
no
load

normal
generating

min

Figure 14: Operating Characteristic of an induction generator

 Table 1: The advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and induction generators

Synchronous Generators Induction Generators

Advantages Advantages

 More efficient  Less expensive

 Reactive power flow can be
controlled
 Suitable for variable speed
operation through an electronic
interface
 Suitable for connection to very
weak networks
 More rugged and robust
 Responds to gusts in a non-oscillatory
way
 Small change of speed with applied
torque reduces stress in drive-train and
spikes in power fed into network
 Can be simply synchronised to the mains

Disadvantages Disadvantages

 More expensive  Consumes Reactive Power

 Responds to gusts in an oscillatory  Requires power factor correction
manner  Not suitable for connection to very weak
 Requires precise synchronisation to the electrical networks
mains
 May lose synchronism under severe
network transients
 Never used now for fixed speed operation
. Connection to the Electricity Network
Power Factor Correction for an Induction Generator

Q Im p o rt
(M V A R ) B

B´

Effect of
A PFC

A´

0 P exp o rt (M W )

Figure 9: The relationship between active and reactive power for an

induction generator.
 Soft-Start Units

Generator Network

Bypass Contactor
Figure 16: A wind turbine soft start unit (only one phase is shown).
11
Power Quality
 Steadiness of frequency

 Purity and steadiness of the sinusoidal

voltage

‘Embedded’ wind turbine effects on grid

 Flicker (tower shadow, wind turbulence,

switching)
 Harmonic distortion

 Standards

12
Integration