A Calibration Procedure for an Analytical Wake Model Using Wind Farm Operational Data

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources in the U.S. Wind turbine wakes change the flow field within wind farms and reduce power generation. Prior research has used experimental and computational methods to investigate and model wind farm wake effects. However, these methods are costly and time-consuming to use commercially. In contrast, a simple analytical approach can provide reasonably accurate estimates of wake effects on flow and power. To reducing errors in wake modeling, one must calibrate the model based on a specific wind farm setting. The purpose of this research is to develop a calibration procedure for wind farm wake modeling using a simple analytical approach and wind turbine operational data obtained from the Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The proposed procedure uses a Gaussian-based analytical wake model and wake superposition model. The wake growth rate varies across the wind farm based on the local streamwise turbulence intensity. The wake model was calibrated by implementing the proposed procedure with turbine pairs within the wind farm. The performance of the model was validated at an onshore wind farm in Iowa, USA. The results were compared with the industry standard wind farm wake model and shown to result in an approximate 1% improvement in sitewide total power prediction. This new SCADA-based calibration procedure is useful for real-time wind farm operational optimization.