Potential of Dynamic Wind Farm Control by Axial Induction in the Case of Wind Gusts

Wind turbines organized in wind farms will be one of the main electric power sources of the future. Each wind turbine causes a wake with a reduced wind speed. This wake influences the power of downstream turbines. Therefore, there is a strong interaction between the individual wind turbines in a wind farm. This interaction is an opportunity for optimal control to maximize the total power and decrease the load (i.e., tower activity and pitch activity) of a wind farm. We use the already known axial-induction-based control but investigate its potential in the case of a wind gust using mathematical optimization. This case is particularly interesting because a wind gust requires a dynamic control reaction and the consideration of the time delay with which downstream turbines are affected. In particular, this enables to reduce the tower load of downstream wind turbines by dynamic axial-induction-based control of an upstream turbine.