ANEMOMETERS
FEATURE SPONSOR
THE PERFORMANCE TRANSPARENCY PROJECT
Wind turbines are power-producing devices. It is important for the customer and the manufacturer to know how efficiently a turbine converts the energy from the given wind conditions
This power–performance characteristic is commonly expressed as electrical power (output) versus horizontal wind speed (input) measured under free inflow conditions at a distance equivalent to two to four rotor diameters in front of the turbine. This is the big dilemma in the wind industry to date. The Performance Transparency Project’s thesis proposes that after the iSpin system has been calibrated for a type of turbine on flat terrain, no recalibration is required for use on semi-complex, complex or even offshore terrain.
PROBLEM DESCRIPTION Determining power curves of wind turbines is usually based on the evaluation of SCADA data, i.e. the generated electrical power in relation to the wind input measured by conventional nacelle anemometers.
However, the acquisition of the wind input by means of conventional nacelle anemometers has several
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disadvantages. Firstly, the wind sensors are located at the rear end of the nacelle and are thus exposed to the turbulence caused by the rotor blades. Secondly, the measurement characteristics of the nacelle anemometers vary depending on the installation for different inflow conditions. To complicate matters further, turbines within a windfarm experience much more irregular wind conditions.
This may be due to wake effects or because the environment is different from that of the prototype turbine measurement. Deviating performance characteristics of individual turbines – and the exact causes of the associated loss of earnings – often remain undetected.
Only a wind measurement system that allows the acquisition of power curves independent of terrain or positioning in the windfarm can change this. This creates performance transparency for
both manufacturers and operators of windfarms regarding the maximum possible utilisation of wind resources.
INDEPENDENT EXPERTS TO VERIFY THE PROJECT RESULTS The Performance Transparency Project (PTP) is a three-year demonstration project run by Romo Wind A/S, an independent technology provider and manufacturer of the patented iSpin technology and The Wind Energy Institute of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Wind Energy). The aim of the project is to prove that this technology can be used to reliably compare the performance curves of a type of turbine – irrespective of terrain and wake currents. It is the largest systematic project to date that demonstrates the robustness and transferability of the Nacelle Transfer Functions (NTF) for a wind measurement system.
A total of 90 turbines will be equipped with iSpin technology. They are
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