Educational software tool for decoupling control in wind turbines applied to a lab‐scale system

This paper presents an educational software tool, called wtControlGUI, whose main purpose is to show the applicability and performance of different decoupling control strategies in wind turbines. Nowadays wind turbines are a very important field in control engineering. Therefore, from an educational point of view, the tool also aims to improve the learning of multivariable control concepts applied on this control field. In addition, wtControlGUI allows for testing and control of a lab-scale system which emulates the dynamic response of a largescale wind turbine. The designed graphical user interface essentially allows simulation and experimental testing of decoupling networks and other multivariable methodologies, such as robust and decentralized control strategies. The tool is available for master degree students in control engineering. A survey was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed tool when used in educational related tasks

Comparative Analysis of Decoupling Control Methodologies and H¥ Multivariable Robust Control for Variable-Speed, Variable-PitchWind Turbines: Application to a Lab-Scale Wind Turbine

This work is focused on the improvement of variable-speed variable-pitch wind turbine performance by means of its control structure. This kind of systems can be considered as multivariable nonlinear processes subjected to undesired interactions between variables and presenting different dynamics at different operational zones. This interaction level and the dynamics uncertainties complicate the control system design. The aim of this work is developing multivariable controllers that cope with such problems. The study shows the applicability of different decoupling methodologies and provides a comparison with a H¥ controller, which is an appropriate strategy to cope with uncertainties. The methodologies have been tested in simulation and verified experimentally in a lab-scale wind turbine. It is demonstrated that the wind turbine presents more interaction at the transition zone. Then, this operational point is used as the nominal one for the controller designs. At this point, decoupling controllers obtain perfect decoupling while the H¥ control presents important interaction in the generated power loop. On the other hand, they are slightly surpassed by the robust design at other points, where perfect decoupling is not achieved. However, decoupling controllers are easier to design and implement, and specifically dynamic simplified decoupling achieve the best global response. Then, it is concluded that the proposed methodologies can be considered for implantation in industrial wind turbines to improve their performance

Adaptive Pitch Controller of a Large-Scale Wind Turbine Using Multi-Objective Optimization

This paper deals with the control problems of a wind turbine working in its nominal zone. In this region, the wind turbine speed is controlled by means of the pitch angle, which keeps the nominal power constant against wind fluctuations. The non-uniform profile of the wind causes tower displacements that must be reduced to improve the wind turbine lifetime. In this work, an adaptive control structure operating on the pitch angle variable is proposed for a nonlinear model of a wind turbine provided by FAST software. The proposed control structure is composed of a gain scheduling proportional–integral (PI) controller, an adaptive feedforward compensation for the wind speed, and an adaptive gain compensation for the tower damping. The tuning of the controller parameters is formulated as a Pareto optimization problem that minimizes the tower fore-aft displacements and the deviation of the generator speed using multi-objective genetic algorithms. Three multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are compared, and a satisfactory solution is selected. The optimal solutions for power generation and for tower fore-aft displacement reduction are also obtained. The performance of these three proposed solutions is evaluated for a set of wind pattern conditions and compared with that achieved by a classical baseline PI controller

Circular economy business models and technology management strategies in the wind industry: Sustainability potential, industrial challenges and opportunities

Circular business models, aimed at narrowing, slowing, and closing resource loops, can potentially generate significant economic and social benefits, promote resource security and improve environmental performance. However, within the wind power industry, sustainability research, including life cycle assessments, has been focused mostly on technology innovation at the material (e.g. permanent magnets), components (e.g. blades) or product level (e.g. new assets). Research analysing the implementation of circular business models in the wind industry is scarce. Such information could, however, support more robust decision-making in the development of system-level innovations for the deployment of more resource-efficient and sustainable wind energy infrastructure. Building upon practical methods for the identification, categorisation and characterisation of business models, 14 circular business models with application to the wind industry were comprehensively evaluated through the revision of 125 documents, including 56 journal papers, 46 industrial business cases and 23 wind technology management reports. Each circular business model is examined according to i) business offering and drivers, ii) value creation, delivery and capture mechanisms, iii) sustainability benefits and trade-offs, and iv) industrial challenges and opportunities. Accordingly, comprehensive guidelines to drive political (legislation design and implementation), industrial (technology and business innovation) and academic (further research) actions, are provided. Though the results are focussed on the wind industry, the general findings and recommendations are relevant across the renewable and low-carbon energy sector

Educational tool for the learning of thermal comfort control based on PMV-PPD indices

In this paper, an interactive educational tool designed for the learning of thermal comfort concepts is presented. Thermal comfort is one of the fundamental aspects of indoor environmental quality and energy savings in buildings. Comfort-based control and energy management constitute an important emergent sub-discipline of engineering studies. The developed tool allows for the definition of the thermal model of a house. Based on this model, thermal comfort is estimated through the predicted mean vote (PMV) and predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) indices, and energy consumption is also calculated. The tool can communicate through Modbus TCP/IP protocol, providing external connectivity and data collection from the different sensors available in a building management system (BMS). In this way, it is possible to calculate in real-time the aforementioned comfort indices and propose corrective control indications to maintain the indoor-air conditions inside the optimal comfort range. A simple control strategy that can be applied to conventional HVAC systems is also addressed. The tool is available for degree students in control engineering. A survey was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed tool

Control system for doubly fed induction generator based wind energy conversion system

ix, 124 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendix.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-124).This thesis deals with the analysis, modeling, and control of the doubly-fed induction machine used as a wind turbine generator. The energy efficiency of wind turbine systems equipped with doubly-fed induction generators are compared to other wind turbine generator systems. Moreover, two controlling methods of variable-speed wind turbine system using a doubly-fed induction generator are analyzed and validated experimentally. In addition, artificial neural network (ANN) is used to estimate the rotor position in model reference adaptive system (MRAS) based speed estimation technique

Online Simulator of an air turbine with OpenFAST

[Resumen] La energía eólica ha alcanzado una capacidad mundial de 837 GW, y para poder seguir creciendo, se requiere seguir mejorando su eficiencia en la producción de energía, y reducir también sus costes de mantenimiento. El modelado de los aerogeneradores tanto en su propio diseño como en la implementación de sus sistemas de control es clave para maximizar la potencia generada y ahorrar costes operativos. Simuladores como OpenFAST permiten la parametrización de la turbina y el análisis de variables como la potencia generada o un estudio de las cargas a las que se somete el sistema. Debido a la complejidad de uso del simulador, para simplificar al usuario el manejo de este software se ha desarrollado una aplicación web que permite ejecutar un conjunto de simulaciones bajo OpenFAST. El programa se divide en dos partes: una parte que gestiona OpenFAST y que es manejada por Python; y la otra parte que funciona de interfaz al usuario y para la que se ha utilizado Vue. Se explican las principales características del software desarrollado y sus posibilidades de uso.[Abstract] Wind power has achieved a global capacity of 837 GW and in order to continue its growth, it needs improvements in the efficiency of energy generation and minimizing maintenance costs. Modelling these systems at the design phase and for the control systems implementation is crucial to maximize the generated power and to save operating costs. Simulators like OpenFAST allow parametrizing the wind turbine and the analysis of variables such as generated power or structural loads in the system. Because of the complex use of this software, to simplify the user interaction a web application that allows to launch simulations in OpenFAST has been developed. The application comprises two parts: one part is responsible for managing OpenFAST by using Python, and the other part works as a web interface and is developed with Vue. The main features of this software and its possible uses are explained.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; PID2020-117063RB-I0

Wind Power

This book is the result of inspirations and contributions from many researchers of different fields. A wide verity of research results are merged together to make this book useful for students and researchers who will take contribution for further development of the existing technology. I hope you will enjoy the book, so that my effort to bringing it together for you will be successful. In my capacity, as the Editor of this book, I would like to thanks and appreciate the chapter authors, who ensured the quality of the material as well as submitting their best works. Most of the results presented in to the book have already been published on international journals and appreciated in many international conferences