A large modern wind farm is not just a collection of autonomous wind turbines. It is a wind power plant (WPP), feeding increasingly large amounts of power into the electricity grid. It is also a highly complex physical system where all the turbines actively interact with each other. Wind Farm Control (WFC) investigates this interaction for a collaborative operation within the wind farm, and the concept has been around for more than two decades. The promise of WFC is that through this cooperative behaviour of the wind turbines, the wind field can be influenced to increase power production and reduce loads, i.e. extend the lifetime. Additionally, it enables better integration of wind power to the grid and improved revenue management, especially for the upcoming flexible electricity markets. WFC technology helps making wind power “market fit”, which in turn decreases the project cost and increases the share of the leading green power source.
The FarmConners project supported the implementation and industrialisation of WFC as an additional feature for the development and operation of wind power plants. It provided a unique platform for the marketability of this feature; bringing the state-of-the-art achievements, ongoing projects and industrial interest together to remove barriers for commercial implementation of WFC. Hence, FarmConners aimed to accelerate the industrialisation and commercialisation of WFC through the following 4 objectives
i. Increase confidence in the models and control strategies through a comprehensive validation platform for WFC
Careful validation of the modelling and control actions is of vital importance to build confidence in the value of coordinated WFC. The efficiency of flow models applied to WFC should be evaluated to provide reliable assessment of the performance of WFC. It is further highlighted in the prospect and challenges in wind farm flow control article, an effort led by the frontiers of the research and development of the technology, globally. FarmConners benchmark, as the first of its kind, quantified that challenge and listed several best practices for robust, accurate and reliable modelling within WFC.
ii. Clarify and develop guidelines for certification, standardization and regularization of WFC as a product
Similar to many other innovations in wind energy, there exist many uncertainties around the certification, standardization and regularization of WFC. Many of which are addressed via postion papers released in collaboration between academia, industry and certification bodies.
iii. Showcase of WFC in various electricity market scenarios; compliance and revenue
WFC is beneficial not only for a more intelligent ancillary service provision, but also for a better revenue management, especially for the flexible market scenarios of the (near) future. Investigating 2020 and 2030 scenarios, FarmConners Market Showcases are the first steps in quantifying the further potential of the technology and showed the prospect of multi-objective WFC for maximizing revenue.
iv. Align the EU level activities and increase cross-border coordination of national research in WFC for higher impact
WFC is an increasingly popular research field with many ongoing projects which yields several opportunities for further collaboration. Having all the project coordinators on board, FarmConners facilitated the alignment of the EU level interest in WFC and maximize the impact. Furthermore, it brought the experience (as well as the datasets) of the national activities on WFC research on a unique platform to strengthen the implementation.
