Enhancing offshore wind farm control: A centralized approach with online optimal power dispatch

This article presents a hierarchical control structure for offshore wind farms, aiming to enhance the overall performance, flexibility, and robustness of the system. At the lower control layer, wind turbine controllers manage the current control, while the upper layer incorporates a dispatch function within the control loop, responsible for the real-time optimal distribution of power references across the entire wind farm. This dispatch function solves an online constrained optimization problem that explicitly accounts for converter-level limitations and park-level objectives. Additionally, a centralized power controller ensures accurate tracking of these references under varying operating conditions, including disturbances, parameter deviations, or uncertainties of different nature. Beyond improving control efficiency, the proposed strategy introduces greater operational flexibility by dynamically adapting to wind energy availability and optimizing power allocation. The control framework is supported by a scalable state-space model, which facilitates deployment in different wind farm configurations and enables systematic analysis of alternative strategies. Extensive simulations validate the effectiveness of the approach, demonstrating its potential for improving wind farm response and integration into modern electricity markets. Key findings highlight the benefits of coordinated power allocation, the robustness of the control structure, and the ability of the system to maintain stable operation even under grid faults, generator disconnections, and wind variability.