Heating a wind turbine facility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10364802-B2
Application number	US-201816055320-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 6, 2018
Priority date	Feb 5, 2016
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

A method for heating a wind turbine facility includes: charging a DC link of an electrical converter connected with a wind turbine of the wind turbine facility; heating air inside the wind turbine facility with heat generated by a voltage limiting unit interconnected with the DC link, which includes a resistor adapted for dissipating electrical energy into heat for reducing a voltage in the DC link, when the voltage is above a threshold voltage; wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the voltage limiting unit generates heat according to settings defined in a controller of the voltage limiting unit. The heating settings are changed based upon commands from a user interface. Furthermore, the DC link is charged by a grid side converter of the wind turbine facility with power from an electrical grid.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for heating a wind turbine facility, the method comprising:
charging a DC link of an electrical converter connected with a wind turbine of the wind turbine facility;
heating air inside the wind turbine facility with heat generated by a voltage limiting unit interconnected with the DC ink, which comprises a resistor adapted for dissipating electrical energy into heat for reducing a voltage in the DC link, when the voltage is above a threshold voltage;
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the voltage limiting unit generates heat according to heating settings defined in a controller of the voltage limiting unit;
wherein heating settings are changed based upon commands from a user interface;
wherein the DC link is charged by a grid side converter of the wind turbine facility with power from an electrical grid.

2. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor is heated to a defined heating temperature.

3. The method of claim 2 ,
wherein the heating temperature is lower than a maximal temperature, which maximal temperature is used for limiting a temperature of the resistor during reducing the voltage in the DC link, when the voltage is above a threshold voltage; and/or
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the heating temperature of the resistor is between 10° C. and 80° C.

4. The method of claim 2 ,
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor generates heat with a defined heating power; and/or
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor has a constant heating power.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
controlling a blower for distributing the heated air inside the wind turbine facility.

6. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the heating temperature is lower than a maximal temperature, which maximal temperature is used for limiting a temperature of the resistor during reducing the voltage in the DC link, when the voltage is above a threshold voltage; and/or
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the heating temperature of the resistor is between 10° C. and 80° C.

7. The method of claim 6 ,
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor generates heat with a defined heating power; and/or
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor has a constant heating power.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
controlling a blower for distributing the heated air inside the wind turbine facility.

9. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor generates heat with a defined heating power; and/or
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor has a constant heating power.

10. The method of claim 9 ,
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor generates heat with a defined heating power; and/or
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the resistor has a constant heating power.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
controlling a blower for distributing the heated air inside the wind turbine facility.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
controlling a blower for distributing the heated air inside the wind turbine facility.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
controlling a blower for distributing the heated air inside the wind turbine facility.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
estimating and/or measuring a temperature of the resistor and/or of the air heated by the resistor;
controlling the voltage limiting unit such that the estimated and/or measured temperature of the resistor and/or the air heated by the resistor is equal to a desired temperature.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
when the voltage in the DC link is above a threshold voltage, controlling the voltage limiting unit such that electrical energy is dissipated into heat until the DC link voltage has fallen below the threshold voltage, independently of the heating settings.

16. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the DC link is charged by a generator side converter of the wind turbine facility.

17. A heating system for a wind turbine facility, the heating system comprising:
a voltage limiting unit electrically interconnected to a DC link of an electric converter of the wind turbine facility with a resistor for dissipating electrical energy from the DC link into heat;
a controller adapted for controlling the electrical converter and the voltage limiting unit, the controller operable to direct the heating system to:
charge the DC link of the electrical converter connected with a wind turbine of the wind turbine facility;
heat air inside the wind turbine facility with heat generated by the voltage limiting unit interconnected with the DC ink, which comprises the resistor adapted for dissipating electrical energy into heat for reducing a voltage in the DC link, when the voltage is above a threshold voltage;
wherein the voltage limiting unit is controlled, such that the voltage limiting unit generates heat according to heating settings defined in the controller of the voltage limiting unit;
wherein heating settings are changed based upon commands from a user interface;
wherein the DC link is charged by a grid side converter of the wind turbine facility with power from an electrical grid.

18. A wind turbine facility, comprising:
a wind turbine tower, in which the converter, the DC link and the voltage limiting unit are arranged; and
a heating system according to claim 9 .

19. The heating system of claim 18 , further comprising:
a pipe system interconnected with the voltage limiting unit, such that heated air from the voltage limiting unit is conducted by the pipe system within the wind turbine facility.

20. The wind turbine facility of claim 18 ,
wherein the resistor of the voltage limiting unit is arranged on a lower level as the converter and/or the DC link in the wind turbine tower.

Assignees

• Abb Technology Oy
• Abb Schweiz

Inventors

• Schult Matthias
• Ebner Stephan
• Schlegel Christian
• Flum Dominik

Classifications

• F03D80/60 Primary

  Cooling or heating of wind motors · CPC title

• F03D7/0284

  in relation to the state of the electric grid · CPC title

• F03D7/04

  Automatic control; Regulation · CPC title

• F05B2270/325

  Air temperature · CPC title

• Y02T50/675

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic