Wind Turbine Control System Modeling Capabilities

At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) National Wind Technology Center we are continuing to make progress in our ability to model complete wind turbine systems. An ADAMS(R) model of the NREL variable-speed test bed turbine was developed to determine whether wind turbine control systems could be simulated and to investigate other control strategies for this turbine. Model simulations are compared with data from the operating turbine using the current mode of operation. In general, the simulations show good agreement with test data. Having established confidence in our ability to model the physical machine, we evaluated two other control methods. The methods studied are a generalized predictive control method and a bias estimation method. Simulation results using these methods are compared to simulation results of the current mode of operation of the turbine.