Stefan Kern: 2013 Sandia National Laboratoies Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
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This document summarizes a presentation on wind plant reliability given at a Sandia workshop. It discusses the need to take a holistic plant-level view of wind reliability rather than focusing on individual turbines. Current challenges include incomplete understanding of complex wind flows, limited data exploitation, and modeling capabilities lagging behind. Improved engineering practices, models validated with field data, and new technologies are needed, as well as leveraging internal R&D and external collaborations. Concerted field tests and simulations validated with measurement data are key to advancing modeling capabilities and overcoming barriers to new technologies.
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Stefan Kern: 2013 Sandia National Laboratoies Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
- 1. This Document Contains the Following Data Types GE Confidential Wind Plant Reliability Complex Flow Research Perspectives Stefan Kern, GE Global Research, Munich August 14, 2013
- 2. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Focus on Wind Plant Holistic plant-level viewTurbine focus Design Siting Operation Reduce LCOE by improved design, operation & micrositing Opt. performance w/ clean blades in free-stream Opt. plant power curve Identical units according to site wind class Optimized product- & component mix „Cooperative“ control; use excess margins As independent units
- 3. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Complex Flow Challenges Design Siting Control • Incomplete physics understanding • Lack of data / limited exploitation of existing fleet data • Limited modeling capabilities, standards lagging behind
- 4. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Needs Understand the problem & entitlement • How much wake losses can we recover? • Excess margins or underestimating loads? Improved engineering practices & models • Hierarchy of models - modular fidelity • Proven & validated against field data • Fleet data mining New technology • Rethink turbine design & siting • Park level control strategies Both internal R&D and collaborations with external partners
- 5. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Learning from Field Data Wake behind single turbine Wind velocity [m/s] Std dev 95% conf int mean Heightaboveground[m] Buffalo Gap wind park - one out of hundreds in the GE fleet Full scale flow field measurements • Averaged velocity profiles of isolated/interacting wind turbines pairs & wake turbulence • Sparse data Operational data of GE fleet • Recorded 10min data of hundreds of wind parks over many years • Data quality can be challenging • How to define/measure ideal farm performance? Gaps: - Best practices for fleet data analysis - Exploiting large data to full extent - Limited load data inside plant along with detailed inflow conditions
- 6. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Learning from Scaled Experiments Gaps: - Scalability questions for small scale models - Medium scale experiments in largest facilities Single turbines • Validation data for predictions of blade aerodynamic performance with controlled inflow • Typically focussed on near wake, limited far wake data Interacting turbines • Typically models with D<50cm in ABL wind tunnels • Limited flexibility in controlling turbine operation Source http://wire.epfl.ch Source http://wind.nrel.gov NREL turbine in NASA AMES wind tunnel Wind farm in ABL wind tunnel MEXICO experiment, DNW wind tunne Source http://www.ecn.nl
- 7. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Engineering Models Rotor & wake • Largely focused on optimizing standalone unit performance • Limited capability to capture complex inflow Farm level • Limited to steady state, assumption of constant wind direction and wind speed • Following IEC certification requirements/common practice Gaps: - Comprehensive calibration of farm models to field data/high fidelity models - Capturing of unsteady effects & complex terrain
- 8. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 High Fidelity Simulation & HPC Gaps: - Comprehensive validation - Largely limited to simple terrain - Flowdown to engineering tools - Exploiting large data to full extent PSU Cyber Wind Facility Rotor & wake • Capture complex inflow for detailed rotor aero & wake • Long term vision: replace expensive field tests • Assessing modeling approaches & numerical methods Farm level • Assess wake impact, control strategies & new architectures • Reduce wake losses and fatigue loading Partners: Penn State, NREL, LLNL, UC Louvain
- 9. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Concerted Field Tests & Simulation Source: energy.sandia.gov …key to advance and validate modeling capabilities Full scale Wind farm Red. scale Few turbines Test setup Simulation Wind tunnel Contr. cond Measmt tech Source: mexnext.org Source: NREL Source: Texas Tech University Distance from rotor plane (m) Source: mexnext.org
- 10. @#GECON&* Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop August 14 2013 Conclusions • Great momentum & progress in complex flow research − Experimental facilities − Measurement technology − Simulation • Overcome barriers to develop & deploy new technologies − Demonstrate business value − Flow down to engineering practices and tools