Method of determining individual set points in a power plant controller, and a power plant controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9556852-B2
Application number	US-201314428465-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 3, 2013
Priority date	Sep 17, 2012
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

This invention relates to a method and a power plant controller arranged to carry out the method. The method is on an intelligent dispatching of the power production to wind turbines and optional compensation equipment of a wind power plant, as the power producing units of a wind power plant. The invention relates to a case where the requested produced power (both active and reactive) is less than the total capacity of the power plant, and the invention relates to utilizing this situation to dispatch set points to the wind turbines and the compensation equipment based on correction factors relating to the operating conditions of the wind park. This method may increase the wind turbines' life time, help in scheduling maintenance and expand the electrical operating range of the wind power plant.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling power production for a plurality of power-producing units of a wind power plant, the plurality of power-producing units comprising a plurality of wind turbine generators, the method comprising:
receiving a requested power to be delivered by the wind power plant, the requested power comprising a requested active power or a requested reactive power;
determining a plurality of correction factors, each correction factor of the plurality of correction factors corresponding to a respective power-producing unit of the plurality of power-producing units and relating to condition information of the power-producing unit, wherein the plurality of correction factors comprise a plurality of prioritization factors indicating a relative power production capability of each power-producing unit of the plurality of power-producing units;
receiving signals indicating a respective available power from each power-producing unit of the plurality of power-producing units, the available power comprising an available active power or an available reactive power of the power-producing unit; and
upon determining that the requested power is less than a combined available power of the plurality of power-producing units:
applying, for each power-producing unit of the plurality of power-producing units, the corresponding correction factor to the respective available power, and
calculating active power set points or reactive power set points for each power-producing unit of the plurality of power-producing units based on the applied correction factor, wherein relative amounts of the calculated active power set points or reactive power set points for the plurality of power-producing units are proportional to the prioritization factors.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition information comprises one or more of the following: wind conditions information, operation characteristics information, component conditions information, wind power plant topology information, and age information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of compensation equipment of the wind power plant.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the wind conditions information comprises one or more of the following: wind direction information, wind speed information, turbulence level information, and wind shear information.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the operation characteristics information comprises one or more of the following:
optimal operation point information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment,
electrical operational range information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment,
operating history information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment, and
production state information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the component conditions information comprises one or more of the following:
sensor measurement information for components of the plurality of wind turbine generators,
age information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment, and
service report information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the sensor measurement information comprises temperature measurements of the plurality of wind turbine generators.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the wind power plant topology information comprises one or more of the following:
potential shadowing information between wind turbine generators of the plurality of wind turbine generators based on wind direction information of the wind conditions information, and
electrical loss information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment to a point of common coupling of the wind power plant to an external electrical grid.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the age information of the plurality of wind turbine generators comprises one or more of the following: actual age information of one or more components of the plurality of wind turbine generators, previous set points sent to the plurality of wind turbine generators, and a count of how many times the plurality of wind turbine generators is shut down or paused.

9. The method of claim 2 , wherein the age information of the compensation equipment comprises one or more of the following: actual age information of the compensation equipment, previous set points sent to the compensation equipment, and a count of how many times the compensation equipment is disconnected or deactivated.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of correction factors is further based on energy price information.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating active power set points or reactive power set points for each power-producing unit comprises:
calculating active power set points and reactive power set points for each of the plurality of wind turbine generators; and
calculating reactive power set points for the compensation equipment.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating active power set points or reactive power set points for each power-producing unit is further based on one or more of the following:
information for an internal electrical grid connecting the plurality of power-producing units to a point of common coupling of the wind power plant to an external electrical grid, and
information for the plurality of wind turbine generators indicating whether each wind turbine generator is active or non-active.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating active power set points or reactive power set points for each power-producing unit is performed using an optimal load flow technique or an optimization of a cost function.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of power-producing units further comprises compensation equipment configured to produce active power or reactive power,
wherein determining a plurality of correction factors comprises determining at least a first correction factor corresponding to the compensation equipment,
wherein receiving signals indicating a respective available power from each power-producing unit comprises receiving at least a first signal corresponding to an available active power or an available reactive power of the compensation equipment, and
wherein calculating active power set points or reactive power set points for each power-producing unit comprises calculating at least one active power set point or reactive set point for the compensation equipment based on the first correction factor and the available active power or the available reactive power indicated by the first signal.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the condition information comprises age information of the plurality of wind turbine generators or of the compensation equipment.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the compensation equipment comprises one or more of a switched capacitor bank, a switched inductor bank, a static condenser, a synchronous condenser, a static compensator (STATCOM), an electrical battery, a flywheel, an ultra-capacitor, a condenser, a hybrid wind-hydro plant, a photovoltaic cell, and a fuel cell.

17. A wind power plant controller for controlling power production of a plurality of power-producing units of a wind power plant, the plurality of power-producing units comprising a plurality of wind turbine generators, the wind power plant controller comprising:
a receiver configur

Assignees

• Vestas Wind Sys As

Inventors

• Babazadeh Mehrdad
• Ehsani Saed
• Kjær Martin Ansbjerg
• Møller Henrik B

Classifications

• H02J3/28

  Arrangements for balancing of the load in networks by storage of energy · CPC title

• H02J3/18

  Arrangements for adjusting, eliminating or compensating reactive power in networks · CPC title

• Y02E40/30

  Reactive power compensation · CPC title

• F03D7/00

  Controlling wind motors  (supplying or distributing electrical power H02J, e.g. arrangements for adjusting, eliminating or compensating reactive power in networks H02J3/18; controlling electric generators H02P, e.g. arrangements for controlling electric generators for the purpose of obtaining a desired output H02P9/00) · CPC title

• H02J3/50 Primary

  Controlling the sharing of reactive power · CPC title