Supervisory Control of a Wind Farm

This paper presents a scheme for supervisory control of wind farms. We concentrate on reduction of power output variation, but the proposed scheme can also be used for system-wide controls that are related to power variation, such as frequency control or damping of power swings. The scheme may utilize either a separate (external) energy storage device or a power reserve achieved through part-loading of one or more turbines in a wind farm. The proposed supervisory control scheme has been validated on a model of a wind farm with four turbines. Simulations have confirmed the usefulness of the scheme. The proposed control system is general and could also be used for other types of intermittent generators such as wave or solar.