Control of a multi-rotor wind turbine system. A local controller is arranged for each wind turbine module and implementing a local model predictive control (MPC) routine. A central controller is arranged to determine a set of operational constraints of the wind turbine modules. Based on a current operational state of the wind turbine module and the set of operational constraints, one or more predicted operational trajectories are calculated and used for controlling the wind turbine module.

Methods and apparatuses for controlling reactive power of a wind turbine, and a wind farm are provided. An exemplary method includes: obtaining operation data of single wind turbines in a wind turbine group at the current time point; determining the total maximum capacitive reactive capacity and total minimum inductive reactive capacity, satisfying a safety constraint condition at the next time point, of the wind turbine group; calculating a deviation value of a wind turbine group reactive instruction at the current time point; and updating the wind turbine group reactive instruction on the basis of the acquired, determined, and calculated data so as to perform reactive power control.

Enabling control of wind turbines is provided. The method comprises receiving power production signals from wind turbines comprising a wind farm and estimating wake travel times from upstream wind turbines to downstream turbines. Correlations of the power production signals are calculated among all pairs of wind turbines in the wind farm. Wind turbines with a power production correlation above a specified threshold at an expected time are considered to have wake interaction. A probability density function of northing directions is calculated for the wind turbine pairs with wake interaction. A determination is made whether the probability density function has a dominant direction. Responsive to the probability density function having a dominant direction, the wind turbine pairs with wake interaction are identified as turbine clusters. A control strategy is applied to each turbine cluster as an operational unit to optimize power production of the wind farm.

Systems and methods of autonomous farm-level control and optimization of wind turbines are provided. Exemplary embodiments comprise a site controller running on a site server. The site controller collects and analyzes yaw control data of a plurality of wind turbines and wind direction data relating to the plurality of wind turbines. The site server determines collective wind direction across an area occupied by the plurality of wind turbines and sends yaw control signals including desired nacelle yaw position instructions to the plurality of wind turbines. The site controller performs wake modeling analysis and determines desired nacelle positions of one or more of the plurality of wind turbines. The desired nacelle yaw position instructions systematically correct static yaw misalignment for all of the plurality of wind turbines. Embodiments of the disclosure provide means to perform whole site or partial site level controls of the yaw controllers of a utility scale wind turbine farm. The overall effect of the coordinated yaw control of wind turbines across the whole or partial site is intended to keep the wake loss of the wind turbines from the upstream wind turbines to the minimum and to maximize the production of turbines that are not waking other turbines.

Provided is a method of determining a control setting of at least one wind turbine of a wind park, the method including: determining a free-stream wind turbulence and deriving the control setting based on the free-stream wind turbulence, wherein the control setting includes a yawing offset, and wherein the yawing offset is derived to be the smaller, the higher the free-stream wind turbulence is.

A method for reducing extreme loads acting on a component of a wind turbine includes measuring, via one or more sensors, a plurality of operating parameters of the wind turbine. Further, the method includes predicting at least one blade moment of at least one rotor blade of the wind turbine based on the plurality of operating parameters. The method also includes predicting a load and an associated load angle of the at least one rotor blade as a function of the at least one blade moment. Moreover, the method includes predicting a pitch angle of the at least one rotor blade of the wind turbine. In addition, the method includes generating a load envelope for the component that comprises at least one load value for the pitch angle and the load angle. Thus, the method includes implementing a control action when the load is outside of the load envelope.

A system and method are provided for controlling a wind turbine. Accordingly, a controller of the wind turbine determines a thermal gradient of the tower due to solar heating. The controller also determines a displacement of a reference point of the wind turbine from a nominal position resulting from a thermal expansion of a portion of the tower. The displacement includes a displacement magnitude and a displacement direction. The displacement direction is in a radial direction opposite of a maximal peak of the thermal gradient. Additionally, the controller determines a correction factor corresponding to the displacement and a setpoint for a component of the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the correction factor. Finally, an operating state of the wind turbine is established based, at least in part, on the setpoint.

Obtaining within a private network of a power plant one or more instructions for controlling the power plant, wherein the power plant includes one or more wind turbine generators, and wherein one or more instructions for controlling the power plant are received at an external digital storage device placed externally with respect to the private network. The one or more instructions are stored in a queue in the external digital storage device. The one or more instructions are fetched from the queue independent with respect to events initiated externally with respect to the private network.

Embodiments herein describe a hydraulic pitch system where a velocity (e.g., the velocity of a hydraulic cylinder or the piston rod in the cylinder) is fed forward and combined with a setting outputted by a pitch controller. The velocity of the hydraulic cylinder is derived from the reference pitch angle or a continuous pitch signal (e.g., a cyclic pitch or ramp rate) in the control system. In either case, the velocity can be determined by monitoring the change in the reference pitch angle or the continuous pitch signal. Using a gain control, the velocity is converted into a position setting of the hydraulic pitch system (e.g., a spool setting in a valve) which is combined with another position setting generated by the pitch controller.

The present disclosure relates to a method of operating a wind turbine, a corresponding wind turbine, a method of controlling a wind farm and a corresponding wind farm. The method comprises the steps of: determining a target maximum active power to be fed by the wind turbine into a power grid, in particular into an electricity power grid; monitoring a current active power fed from the wind turbine into the power grid; determining a reference time period corresponding to the determined target maximum active power; deriving an average of the active power fed from the wind turbine into the power grid during the reference time period; comparing the average of the active power with the target maximum active power; and operating the wind turbine at a set operating point permitting active power above the target maximum active power in case the average of the active power is below the target maximum active power.