Presentations
Push power where you can and prevent damage where you need
Maryana Berezyak, Product Development | Data Analyst, Fibersail
Abstract
The sustainable development of the wind energy industry faces several challenges, one of which is the lack of flexibility to face increasing power system complexity. From the wind farm operator's view, flexibility means the ability to adjust the energy generation pattern to different constraints. However, in current industry practice, the curtailment strategy is often based only on regulatory restrictions and market-driven economic factors. The effects of this strategies on turbine loading and lifetime, and consequential costs or benefits are mostly overlooked. In fact, with lifetime extension being an important topic for wind farm operators nowadays, it is crucial to consider the curtailment impact on asset longevity. Currently, operators have no tools to evaluate curtailment strategies which also account for the potentially conflicting effects on the lifetime of turbine components. In this sense, a condition monitoring system based on an advanced shape sensing solution for wind turbine blades is being developed by Fibersail. This work demonstrates the capability of CMS from Fibersail to delivery important data/information to assess the impact of different curtailment strategies on wind turbine blades in terms of fatigue load, wear, and lifetime. The effect of curtailments is calculated from experimental data measured by Fibersail CMS installed in a large wind turbine model. To assess the impact on blade loads, wear and lifetime, alternative curtailment regimes were implemented. Blade loads and deflections are calculated over the monitoring period. To assess the impact on lifetime, the evaluation of DELs derived from CMS data was employed. In this way, by precisely tracking blade shape and loads over wind turbine lifetime, operators can make informed decisions about turbine operation. This enables a shift towards active asset management strategies, allowing operators to choose between "Power Mode" (maximize the energy produced) and "Lifetime Mode" (minimize the wear and tear of the components).
