Wind turbine drive control system

This document explores the fundamental concepts and control methods/techniques for wind turbine control systems. Wind turbine control is necessary to ensure low maintenance costs and efficient performance. The control system also guarantees safe operation, optimizes power output, and ensures long structural life.

Wind turbine control is necessary to ensure low maintenance costs and efficient performance. The control system also guarantees safe operation, optimizes power output, and ensures long structural life. Turbine rotational speed and the generator speed are two key areas that you must control for power limitation and optimization.

The mitigation of loads on the drivetrain of the wind turbine and an increase in power capture at the turbine level are addressed in the literature on turbine control by optimizing the generator torque, blade pitch and yaw steering controls (as shown in, for example, van Binsbergen et al., 2020, and Fleming et al., 2013).

Researchers at the NWTC use advanced control methods to design innovative controls for offshore floating wind turbines to maximize energy production, reduce structural loads, limit platform motion, and increase reliability.

Pitch controlled WTs have an active control system which varies the pitch angle of the turbine blades to decrease torque and rotational speed in WTs. This type of control is usually employed in high wind speeds only where high rotational speeds and aerodynamic torques can damage the equipment.

Abstract. This paper presents the state-of-the-art technologies and development trends of wind turbine drivetrains – the system that converts kinetic energy of the wind to electrical energy – in different stages of their life cycle: design, manufacturing, installation, operation, lifetime extension, decommissioning and recycling.