Wind Turbine Control for Highly Turbulent Winds

The constant expansion of wind power plants and ever increasing energy needs result in a need for wind turbine installation in areas with complex terrain and highly turbulent winds. Wind turbine control during such winds is very difficult task that often cannot be efficiently accomplished by classic wind turbine control system. This paper presents a novel approach to the wind turbine control intended for a wind turbine operation during strong and gusty winds. The approach relies on a combined use of generator electromagnetic torque and pitch control. Generator electromagnetic torque is used as an intermittent braking torque that assists pitch actions during wind gusts. The proposed control approach can cause an electrical system overload if not designed appropriately. Therefore a methodology for the control system tuning that can guarantee safe operation of the system has been developed. The paper firstly describes the classic wind turbine control system and outlines the process of the control system design. Secondly, the proposed control approach is explained and controller tuning process is described. It is finally validated against the performance of a fine tuned classic control system. Testing of the control system is performed according to international standards using a professional wind turbine simulator.