Systems and methods for regulating wind turbines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9506454-B2
Application number	US-201113640281-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2011
Priority date	Apr 8, 2010
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

A wind energy installation having a wind rotor, a generator which is driven thereby and interacts with a converter in order to produce electrical power, rotation-speed regulation and converter control which interacts therewith, wherein the rotation-speed regulation outputs a nominal rotation speed signal (n ref ). Furthermore, additional regulation is provided, which has an input for an additional power and is designed to produce a rotation speed change signal therefrom, taking account of a rotator inertia moment, and to output this as an output signal, which is added to the nominal rotation speed signal via a logic element. Kinetic energy is taken from the wind rotor in a controlled manner by reducing the rotation speed and is converted by the generator to additional electrical energy. This allows primary regulation power to be made available deliberately by rotation speed variation, to be precise even in unsteady wind conditions.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wind turbine comprising:
a wind rotor,
a generator driven by the wind rotor and which interacts with a converter to generate electrical power,
a speed regulator outputting a target speed signal,
a converter control unit,
an additional speed regulation system that has an input for additional power and is configured to:
generate from the input for additional power a speed change signal, taking into account a moment of inertia of the rotor, and
output the speed change signal as an output signal, and

a combiner element that has inputs for the target speed signal and the speed change signal, wherein the combiner element is configured to output a corrected target speed signal to the converter control unit by combining the target speed signal and the speed change signal.

2. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a correction element that is configured to modify parameters of the additional speed regulation system as a function of the additional power called up.

3. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 2 , comprising an aerodynamic estimator that estimates the aerodynamic efficiency or power of the wind turbine.

4. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 3 , comprising a wind observer that determines a wind speed from power and speed data and transmits it to the aerodynamic estimator.

5. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a suppression element that blocks the additional speed regulation system when operating under full load.

6. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a module for monitoring threshold values that is configured to limit or deactivate the additional speed regulation system as a function of the threshold value being violated.

7. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the additional speed regulation system has a torque limiting element.

8. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a characteristic switching module for the speed regulator that switches to a characteristic with a higher torque when there is additional power.

9. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a device for determining the additional power that is configured to determine the additional power using the frequency measured in a grid.

10. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the device for determining the additional power interacts with a dynamic module.

11. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the additional speed regulation system has a speed gradient module that is configured to specify a minimum gradient for the rise in speed after the supply of additional power is completed.

12. A wind farm having a wind farm control center and multiple wind turbines, the wind turbines each being provided with a wind rotor, a generator driven by the wind rotor and which interacts with a converter to generate electrical power, a speed regulator outputting a target speed signal and a converter control unit, and at least a fraction of the wind turbines being provided with an additional speed regulation system that has an input for additional power and is configured to generate a speed change signal from the input for additional power, taking into account a moment of inertia of the rotor, and to output the speed change signal as an output signal, and a combiner element that has inputs for the target speed signal and the speed change signal, wherein the combiner element is configured to output a corrected target speed signal to the converter control unit by combining the target speed signal and the speed change signal, the wind farm control center having an inertia control module that apportions required additional power to the said fraction of the wind turbines.

13. The wind farm as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the inertia control module is configured to apportion the additional power evenly to the rotating wind turbines.

14. A method for operating a wind turbine that comprises a wind rotor, a generator driven by the wind rotor and which interacts with a converter to generate electrical power, a speed regulator, a converter control unit, an additional speed regulation system, and a combiner element, the method comprising:
outputting a target speed signal from the speed regulator to the combiner element,
generating by the additional speed regulation system from an input for additional power, a speed change signal, taking into account a moment of inertia of the rotor,
outputting the speed change signal as an output signal from the additional speed regulation system to the combiner element, and
outputting, by the combiner element, a corrected target speed signal to the converter control unit by adding the change of speed signal to the target speed signal.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14 , comprising modifying parameters of the additional speed regulation system as a function of the additional power called up.

16. A method for operating a wind farm having a wind farm control center and multiple wind turbines, the wind turbines each being provided with a wind rotor, a generator driven by the wind rotor and which interacts with a converter to generate electrical power, a speed regulator and a converter control unit, and at least a fraction of the wind turbines being provided with an additional speed regulation system and a combiner element, the method comprising:
outputting a target speed signal from the speed regulator to the combiner element, for the at least a fraction of the wind turbines,
generating by the additional speed regulation system from an input for additional power, a speed change signal, taking into account a moment of inertia of the rotor, for the at least a fraction of the wind turbines,
outputting the speed change signal as an output signal to the combiner element, for the at least a fraction of the wind turbines,
outputting, by the combiner element, a corrected target speed signal to the converter control unit by adding the change of speed signal to the target speed signal, for the at least a fraction of the wind turbines, and
apportioning the required additional power to the fraction of the wind turbines by the wind farm control center.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 , comprising apportioning the additional power evenly to the rotating wind turbines.

18. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 2 , comprising an aerodynamic estimator that estimates the aerodynamic efficiency and power of the wind turbine.

19. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a suppression element that blocks the additional speed regulation system when operating under full load and interacts with a start module that is configured to override the suppression module in the event of changes in additional power.

20. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a module for monitoring threshold values that is configured to limit or deactivate the additional speed regulation system as a function of the threshold value being violated when a threshold value for an aerodynamic efficiency, an electrotechnical limit or a speed-dependent torque threshold characteristic is exceeded.

21. The wind turbine as claimed in claim 1 , comprising a module for monitoring threshold values that is configured to limit or deactivate the additional speed regulation system as a function of the threshold value being violated when a threshold value for an aerodynamic efficiency, an electrotechnical limit and a speed-dependent torque threshold characteristic is exceeded.

22. The wind turbine as claimed in

Assignees

• Krueger Thomas
• Geisler Jens
• Schrader Stefan
• Senvion Se

Inventors

• Krueger Thomas
• Geisler Jens
• Schrader Stefan

Classifications

• F05B2270/336

  Blade lift measurements · CPC title

• F05B2270/32

  Wind speeds · CPC title

• F05B2270/304

  Spool rotational speed · CPC title

• Y02E10/723

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• F03D7/042 Primary

  by means of an electrical or electronic controller · CPC title