Posters

Abstract

Wind turbine operators and owners are presented a range of performance enhancing retrofit options by OEMs or third parties. Typically, such offerings are accompanies by specific details of the expected performance improvements in terms of AEP (Annual Energy Production). Today these claims are very difficult to verify independently, mainly due to the difficulty in accurately quantifying the wind resource available at the turbine given complex environmental conditions. The current best practice for AEP gain verification, as dictated by the IEC 61400-12-1, would involve a PCV (power curve verification) campaign before and after the retrofit is performed on the turbine. These campaigns require the use of additional and independent wind measurement device(s). Unfortunately, the cost of carrying out such verification campaigns is often higher than the retrofit itself, and therefore can only be performed on selected candidate turbines of a wind farm. This results in relatively high levels of uncertainty surrounding the overall gain that can be achieved at a wind farm or fleet level, due to varying flow conditions at each turbine. In this study we investigated the use of SCADA 10-minute data as a pragmatic means of quickly and efficiently assessing potential AEP gains, whilst quantifying the associated uncertainty.