Comparative study on impacts of power curve model on capacity factor estimation of pitch-regulated turbines

Abstract

The amount of energy produced by a turbine depends on the characteristics of both wind speed at the site under investigation and the turbine's power performance curve. The capacity factor (CF) of a wind turbine is commonly used to estimate the turbine's average energy production. This paper investigates the effect of the accuracy of the power curve model on CF estimation. The study considers three CF models. The first CF model is based on a power curve model that underestimates the turbine output throughout the ascending segment of the power curve. To compensate for the aforementioned discrepancy, the Weibull parameters, c and k, which are used to describe wind profile, are calculated based on cubic mean wind speed (CMWS). The second CF model is based on the most accurate generic power curve model available in open literature. The third CF model is based on a new model of power performance curve which mimics the behavior of a typical pitch-regulated turbine curve. As the coefficients of this power curve model are based on a general estimation of the turbine output at different wind speeds, they can be further tuned to provide a more accurate fit with turbine data from a certain manufacturer.