Browse Theses

As wind energy penetration increases, grid operators need more control capabilities of the wind farms. Typical wind farm control solutions currently used by wind turbine manufacturers and developers are based on simple look-up table algorithms for active and reactive power generation, and for the associated frequency and voltage control strategies. However, this approach does not consider power generation efficiency or mechanical fatigue issues at the wind farm level. To address these critical problems, we develop a new cooperative control strategy that provides power generation optimization for the frequency control case with de-rated wind turbines. The new methodology relies on finding the optimum rotational velocity of the wind turbines of the wind farm such that the sensitivity of power generation to the change in the wind velocity is minimized. The new strategy is validated at three complementary levels: (1) a multi-turbine simulator with 20 wind turbines with different rotors, sizes and wind speed, (2) a 2 machine wind farm based on the 5 MW NREL FAST simulator, and (3) real experiments of a small wind farm at the wind tunnel of the Control and Energy Systems Center, CWRU. The results increase the grid operator's control capabilities and open the door to higher wind energy penetration levels.