A method of retrofitting a wind turbine having a tower and a first energy generating unit with a second energy generation unit is disclosed. The wind turbine has been operated for a first period of time at a first tower life rate and has a first tower life expectancy design value. The method includes determining the tower life of the wind turbine tower used during the first period of time; determining the remaining tower life of the wind turbine tower; replacing the first energy generating unit with the second energy generating unit; and operating the retrofitted wind turbine at a second tower life rate less than the first tower life rate so as to extend the life expectancy value of the tower beyond the first tower life expectancy design value.

A control network for a wind turbine system, the wind turbine system comprising multiple rotor-nacelle assemblies mounted on a support structure, the control network comprising: a respective local network associated with each rotor-nacelle assembly, each local network comprising multiple nodes; a central network that is connected to each local network, the central network comprising multiple nodes; and a synchronisation synchronization device that synchronizes data transmission throughout the control network.

Disclosed is a wind turbine layout optimization method combining with a dispatching strategy for the wind farm. In the wind farm micro-siting stage, the installed wind turbines number and the arrangement positions are optimized. In this method, the dispatching strategy of wind turbines is considered during the layout optimization of wind turbines, and the axial induction factor of each wind turbine is introduced into the layout optimization variables. The dispatching strategy of maximizing the wind farm power generation is combined with the layout optimization of wind turbines in the construction stage of the wind farm, so that the wake effect is effectively reduced and the capacity cost is reduced, which meet the requirement of actual wind farm. A hybrid optimization algorithm is proposed in this method, with a greedy algorithm to optimize the turbine number and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to refine the turbine layout scheme.

Methods and apparatus for reducing peak power consumption of a grid connected power plant having a plurality of wind turbines. In response to determining that a power production value of the power plant is below a power threshold, one method includes: after a first time delay of a first group of one or more wind turbines, control the first group to operate in a power saving mode for a predefined first power saving period; and after a first time delay of a second group of one or more other wind turbines, control the second group to operate in the power saving mode for a predefined second power saving period. The first time delay of the first group is less than the first time delay of the second group and the power saving mode inhibits a power consuming activity for the wind turbines operating in the power saving mode.

Techniques for controlling rotor speed of a wind turbine. One technique includes defining a system model describing resonance dynamics of a wind turbine component, such as a wind turbine tower, where the system model has a nonlinear input term, e.g. a periodic forcing term. A transform is applied to the system model to obtain a transformed model for response oscillation amplitude of the wind turbine component, where the transformed model has a linear input term. A wind turbine model describing dynamics of the wind turbine is then defined, and includes the transformed model. A model-based control algorithm, e.g. model predictive control, is applied using the wind turbine model to determine at least one control output, e.g. generator torque, and the control output is used to control rotor speed of the wind turbine.

A test and control apparatus, system and method for a wind farm, are provided. The test and control apparatus includes a first communication interface, a second communication interface, and a processor card. The processor card receives, via the first communication interface, a frequency regulation instruction issued by the grid scheduling server, receives operation information of the wind power generation unit via the second communication interface, and calculates, based on the operation information of the wind power generation unit, a first frequency regulation capability of the wind power generation unit performing a frequency regulation without using the first energy storage battery. The processor card sends the frequency regulation instruction to the wind power generation unit without using the first energy storage battery, in a case that the first frequency regulation capability of the wind power generation unit satisfies a requirement of the frequency regulation instruction.

A method for determining an available power of a wind farm, wherein the wind farm comprises a plurality of wind power installations with a rotor having rotor blades, the blade angle of which can be adjusted is provided. A wind farm which is set up to carry out the method for determining an available power is provided. The method comprises providing a shading matrix which determines at least one effective wind speed of each of the wind power installations in the wind farm as a function of at least one wind speed and wind direction and wind farm throttling using a park wake model. The method makes it possible to accurately determine an available power of a wind farm even when the wind farm is operated with throttled power.

Techniques for controlling the yaw of a wind turbine system by controlling a plurality of yaw drive actuators. Based on a requested motor speed reference as an input signal, and a mean motor speed reference as a feedback signal, the method determines a required motor torque reference as an output signal for the plurality of yaw drive actuators. The plurality of yaw drive actuators rotates a nacelle or a structure comprising a plurality of nacelles such that an even load distribution is provided for the plurality of yaw drive actuators.

A method for monitoring a wind turbine including: i) obtaining, from a data storage, a plurality of sets of measurement data of at least two measurement variables, the measurement variables being measurement variables of the wind turbine, acquired by first sensors, and/or the environment of the wind turbine, acquired by second sensors, and the measurement data of a respective set of measurement data being acquired at a same time point in the past; ii) processing the measurement data of the at least two measurement variables by creating an image suitable for visualization; iii) determining a deviation type from a predetermined operation of the wind turbine by processing the image by a trained data-driven model configured as a convolutional neural network, where the image is fed as a digital input to the trained data-driven model and the trained data-driven model provides the deviation type as a digital output.

A method of determining an offset angle to the wind direction measured from a wind vane of a wind turbine includes the steps of: defining a plurality of power bins representing an interval of power which can be produced by the wind turbine, calculating an efficiency of the wind turbine for a plurality of time slots, determining a power output of the wind turbine for the plurality of time slots, comparing the efficiency of the wind turbine in two different time slots, and updating a value of the one of the power bins representing the interval of power determined for one of the compared time slots. The value of the power bin is updated with the result of the highest efficiency or a value derived from the highest efficiency multiplied with a constant.