Wind turbine monitoring for control versions comparison

The wind is one of the most important sources of energy nowadays. Wind turbine generators (WTGs) have undergone enormous change, with new components and new control strategies being designed to improve their performance. WTG control is the most important component although at the same time it is also the least-known system; it is considered a black box. WTG control strategies are aimed at generating as much power as possible, while keeping the loads in each component below certain limits. If these strategies perform poorly, component life span could be reduced, decreased power production and even WTG collapse. These control strategies are developed by the WTG suppliers who release them as new control versions when a new strategy is implemented or when a failure has been detected in a previous version. In order to understand more about these little-known strategies Iberdrola Renewables has designed a monitoring system for control version comparison. The monitoring system has been designed to collect more information from the WTG, and new sensors have been placed in the blades, drive train and tower in order to compare different control versions. With this new design, Iberdrola Renewables is able to detect any positive or negative impacts on our fleet of these new control versions launched by the suppliers.