Adaptive neuro-fuzzy optimization of wind farm project net profit

A wind power plant which consists of a group of wind turbines at a specific location is also known as wind farm. To maximize the wind farm net profit, the number of turbines installed in the wind farm should be different in depend on wind farm project investment parameters. In this paper, in order to achieve the maximal net profit of a wind farm, an intelligent optimization scheme based on the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is applied. As the net profit measures, net present value (NPV) and interest rate of return (IRR) are used. The NPV and IRR are two of the most important criteria for project investment estimating. The general approach in determining the accept/reject/stay in different decision for a project via NPV and IRR is to treat the cash flows as known with certainty. However, even small deviations from the predetermined values may easily invalidate the decision. In the proposed model the ANFIS estimator adjusts the number of turbines installed in the wind farm, for operating at the highest net profit point. The performance of proposed optimizer is confirmed by simulation results. Some outstanding properties of this new estimator are online implementation capability, structural simplicity and its robustness against any changes in wind farm parameters. Based on the simulation results, the effectiveness of the proposed optimization strategy is verified.