Real-time identification of clusters of turbines

Abstract

The implementation of wind farm control strategies requires knowledge of the turbines that are aerodynamically coupled through wake effects. As the wind changes direction, the clusters of coupled turbines may vary within the array. The present study proposes a simple method to identify clusters of turbines coupled by the wake interaction. The method uses the correlation of the power production fluctuations of the turbines in the wind farm. Large Eddy Simulations (LES) results of the flow in a 4?4 turbine array have been used to validate the proposed approach. This study introduces a tool which can be integrated into a control system to optimize wind plant power production.