Wind farm yaw control set-point optimization under model parameter uncertainty

Abstract

Wake steering, the intentional yaw misalignment of certain turbines in an array, has demonstrated potential as a wind farm control approach to increase collective power. Existing algorithms optimize the yaw misalignment angle set-points using steady-state wake models and either deterministic frameworks or optimizers that account for wind direction and yaw misalignment variability and uncertainty. Wake models rely on parameterizations of physical phenomena in the mean flow field, such as the wake spreading rate. The wake model parameters are uncertain and vary in time at a wind farm depending on the atmospheric conditions, including turbulence intensity, stability, shear, veer, and other atmospheric features. In this study, we develop a yaw set-point optimization approach that includes model parameter uncertainty in addition to wind condition variability and uncertainty. To enable computationally efficient online set-point optimization under model parameter uncertainty, a simplified, approximate parameter distribution estimation method is used. The optimization is tested in open-loop control numerical experiments using utility-scale wind farm operational data for which the set-point optimization framework with parametric uncertainty has a statistically significant impact on the wind farm power production for certain wind turbine layouts at low turbulence intensity, but the results are not significant for all layouts considered nor at higher turbulence intensity. The set-point optimizer is also tested for closed-loop wake steering control of a model wind farm in large eddy simulations of a convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The yaw set-point optimization with model parameter uncertainty reduced the sensitivity of the closed-loop wake steering control to increases in the yaw controller update frequency. Increases in wind farm power production were not statistically significant due to the high ambient power variability in the turbulent, convective ABL.