Real-time relocation of floating offshore wind turbine platforms for wind farm efficiency maximization: An assessment of feasibility and steady-state potential

This work examines the steady-state potential and feasibility of Yaw and Induction-based Turbine Repositioning (YITuR), which is a wind farm control concept that passively repositions floating offshore wind turbines using existing turbine control degrees of freedom. To this end, the Floating Offshore Wind Farm Simulator (FOWFSim) is developed to model steady-state wind farm power production while considering floating platform relocation. Optimization studies are carried out with different floating wind farm design parameters and configurations. The objective is to determine sets of optimal wind turbine operating parameters that relocate floating turbines such that wind farm efficiency is maximized. Results show that the potential of YITuR is starkly limited by wind farm design parameters. In particular, anchors should be placed adequately far from floating platform neutral positions, mooring lines should be sufficiently long, and only specific mooring system orientations permit substantial gains in wind farm efficiency. With specific combinations of these parameters, simulation results show that the efficiency of a 7 x 7 floating offshore wind farm may be raised by 42.7% when implementing YITuR in comparison to greedy operation.