Wind farm output smoothing through co-ordinated control and short-term wind speed prediction

This paper presents a new method of using co-ordinated control and short term wind speed prediction to smooth the output of an array of wind turbines. The proposed controller uses knowledge of the kinetic energy storage potential in the rotor disc to allow production of piecewise static power outputs from variable wind inputs. Previous studies have shown that there are large peaks in wind power variability in the minutes timescale which is within the ability of a control system to reduce. This variation will cause issues with balancing systems within the local grid, as such it is beneficial to remove it. Results of tests to the system are presented which show a significant reduction in wind farm output power variability without a significant drop in output power.