Dynamic Simulation on Collision Between Ship and Offshore Wind Turbine

By using ABAQUS/Explicit, the dynamic process of an offshore wind turbine(OWT) stricken by a ship of 5000DWT in the front direction is simulated. The OWT is located on a large-scale prestressing bucket foundation constructed by an integrated installation technique. According to the simulation results, under the ship collision, a certain range of plastic zone appears within a local area of arc transition structure of the bucket foundation, and the concrete plastic zone is seriously damaged. As the stress level of OWT tower is relatively low, the OWT tower is less affected. A great inertial force is generated at the top of the OWT tower as the mass of nacelle and blades is up to 400 t. The displacement of the tower is in the opposite direction of the ship collision at the end of 1 s under the action of inertial force. There is only a minor damage in the ship bow. Most of the kinetic energy is transformed into the plastic dissipation and absorbed by the arc transition structure of bucket foundation.

Fault Ride-Through Capability of Full-Power Converter Wind Turbine

In order to ensure power system stability, modern wind turbines are required to be able to endure deep voltage dips. The specifications that determine the voltage dip versus time are called fault r/de-through （FRT） requirements. The purpose of this paper is not only to examine the FRT behavior of a full-power converter wind turbine but also to combine the power system viewpoint to the studies. It is not enough for the turbine to be FRT capable; the loss of mains （LOM） protection of the turbine must also be set to allow the FRT. Enabling FRT, however, means that the LOM protection settings must be loosen, which may sometimes pose a safety hazard. This article introduces unique real-time simulation environment and proposes an FRT method for a wind turbine that also takes the operation of LOM protection relay into account. Simulations are carried out using the simulation environment and results show that wind turbine is able to ride-through a symmetrical power system fault.

Aerodynamic Effects on TLP Type Wind Turbines and Predictions of the Electricity They Generate

This research proposes a new offshore wind energy generation system that uses a tension leg platform (TLP) and describes experiments performed on a TLP type wind turbine in both waves and wind. The following conclusions can be made from the results of this research. 1) In the case of coexisting wave-wind fields, the wind effect stabilizes the pitch motion. 2) The wind effect decreases vibration of the mooring lines when waves and wind coexist. In particular, the springing (2nd or 3rd order force) also decreases in this field. 3) It can be estimated that the reduction in the rate of generation of electrical power can be up to about 6% as a result of the heel angle. In addition, the annual amount of electricity generated was estimated along with the utilization factor based on the experimental results.

Design of Large-Scale Prestressing Bucket Foundation for Offshore Wind Turbines

The key in the force transmission between the tower and the foundation for offshore wind turbines is to transfer the large moment and horizontal loads. The finite element model of a large-scale prestressing bucket founda- tion for offshore wind turbines is set up and the structural characteristics of the arc transition structure of the founda- tion are analyzed for 40-60 channels(20-30 rows) arranged with prestressing steel strand under the same ultimate load and boundary conditions. The mechanical characteristics of the key parts of the foundation structures are illus- trated by the peak of the principal tensile stress, the peak of the principal compressive stress and the distribution areas where the principal tensile stress is larger than 2.00 MPa. It can be concluded that the maximum principal tensile stress of the arc transition decreases with the increasing number of channels, and the amplitude does not change signifi- cantly; the maximum principal compressive stress increases with the increasing number of channels and the amplitude changes significantly; however, for the distribution areas where the principal tensile stress is larger than 2.00 MPa, with different channel numbers, the phenomenon is not obvious. Furthermore, the principal tensile stress at the top of the foundation beams fluctuantly increases with the increasing number of channels and for the top cover of the bucket, the principal tensile stress decreases with the increasing number of channels.

Wind Turbine Selection Criteria： A Customer Perspective

Selection of the wind turbine manufacturer is naturally an important issue for wind energy companies when they build new wind farms. This paper describes the main factors by which wind energy companies choose their turbine manufacturers in a selected case region in Finland. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews, for which the experts and decision makers of selected wind energy companies formed the focus group. During the analysis of the results, it became clear that it was not possible to form a detailed and prioritized list of selection criteria, but still some general themes emerged. The main theme was the manufacturer and product reliability, and then the production volume, cost factors, availability factors, and the organization of maintenance in this order. Interestingly, the arctic conditions of the selected case region did not play any significant role.

Seismic Design of Offshore Wind Turbine Withstands Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Japan＇s first open sea offshore wind farm, Kamisu offshore windfarm Phase l, was stricken by an earthquake of intensity 6 on the Japanese seismic scale and a five-meter-high tsunami during the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11,2011. The wind farm resumed operation on March 14 after checks revealed no damage to the system, even though the wind farm was temporarily forced to stop due to the grid failure caused by the earthquake. Wind turbines require a precise seismic design especially in an earthquake-prone country such as Japan. Wind power Kamisu Phase 2 was built one year after the earthquake based on the experience of Kamisu Phase 1. This paper presents the seismic design of offshore wind turbines and the situation during the earthquake and tsunami.

Numerical Investigations on the Aerodynamic Performance of Wind Turbine： Downwind Versus Upwind Configuration

Although the upwind configuration is more popular in the field of wind energy, the downwind one is a promising type for the offshore wind energy due to its special advantages. Different configurations have different aerodynamic performance and it is important to predict the performance of both downwind and upwind configurations accurately for designing and developing more reliable wind turbines. In this paper, a numerical investigation on the aerodynamic performance of National Renewable Energy Laboratory （NREL） phase V1 wind turbine in downwind and upwind configurations is presented. The open source toolbox OpenFOAM coupled with arbitrary mesh interface （AMI） method is applied to tackle rotating problems of wind turbines. Two 3D numerical models of NREL phase VI wind turbine with downwind and upwind configurations under four typical working conditions of incoming wind velocities are set up for the study of different unsteady characteristics of the downwind and upwind configurations, respectively. Numerical results of wake vortex structure, time histories of thrust, pressure distribution on the blade and limiting streamlines which can be used to identify points of separation in a 3D flow are presented. It can be concluded that thrust reduction due to blade-tower interaction is small for upwind wind turbines but relatively large for downwind wind turbines and attention should be paid to the vibration at a certain frequency induced by the cyclic reduction for both configurations. The results and conclusions are helpful to analyze the different aerodynamic performance of wind turbines between downwind and upwind configurations, providing useful references for practical design of wind turbine.

Special report on relationship between wind farms and power grids

The installed capacity of a large scale wind power plant will be up to a number of hundreds MW, and the wind power is transmitted to load centers through long distance transmission lines with 220 kV, 500 kV, or 750 kV. Therefore, it is necessary not only considering the power transmission line between a wind power plant and the first connection node of the power network, but also the power network among the group of those wind power plants in a wind power base, the integration network from the base to the existed grids, as well as the distribution and consumption of the wind power generation by loads. Meanwhile, the impact of wind power stochastic fluctuation on power systems must be studied. In recent years, wind power prediction technology has been studied by the utilities and wind power plants. As a matter of fact, some European countries have used this prediction technology as a tool in national power dispatch centers and wind power companies.

Analysis of Offshore Wind Power： Application to Southern Thailand

This paper presents an analysis of a pre-feasibility study of a 10 MW offshore wind power project in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, southern Thailand. The wind speeds at the hub heights of large scale wind turbine generators （WTG）, i.e. 80-100 m, were extrapolated using monthly mean wind shear coefficients and the l/7th exponent. Using WAsP 9.0, the annual energy production from several models of offshore wind farms using different WTG was analyzed. The capacity factor and the cost of energy were then computed. Using best available estimates, the analysis shows that the estimated annual mean offshore wind speeds at 80-100 m were in the range of 6.4 and 8.3 m/s. The annual energy production by the wind farm from nine models of wind turbine generators were in the range of 20-39 GWh/year, corresponding to a capacity factor in the range of 26-46%, while the cost of energy was 12-15 US cent/kWh.

Wind Energy Potential Assessment in Republic of Macedonia

The paper presents the measurement campaign of wind energy potential undertaken in Republic of Macedonia on four sites from the middle of 2006. The wind data analysis has been performed for one site, following with the assessment of energy production of simulated wind park with six wind turbine generators.

Availability. Based Wind Farm Design

The paper develops a methodology for the optimal sizing of a generic wind farms, focusing primarily on reliability aspects, besides the traditional economic ones. A specific objective function is proposed in order to select the better wind farm configuration, based upon the profits related to the economic trading in the deregulated electric market and the costs due to investment, operation ＆ management, and to system unavailability. This objective function is accurately investigated as a function of the turbines number in order to derive the most convenient alternative, which implies also the optimal choice of the single wind generators size. The ranking coming out from this assessment is then compared with that one established in terms of expected load not supplied. A compromise choice, between the best alternatives provided by the two criteria has finally adopted. A simple numerical application is reported in the last part of the paper for testing the validity of the proposed approach. Also uncertainty aspects in the basic input parameters are taken into account and possible way of dealing with them is briefly illustrated.

2010 Industrial Report on Small and Medium Size Wind Turbines in China

The development of small and medium wind turbine industry in 2010 is presented, including the production capability, the mainstream products and the main producers. Suggestions for future's development are also put forward.

Investigation on Installation of Offshore Wind Turbines

Wind power has made rapid progress and should gain significance as an energy resource,given growing interest in renewable energy and clean energy.Offshore wind energy resources have attracted significant attention,as,compared with land-based wind energy resources,offshore wind energy resources are more promising candidates for development.Sea winds are generally stronger and more reliable and with improvements in technology,the sea has become a hot spot for new designs and installation methods for wind turbines.In the present paper,based on experience building offshore wind farms,recommended foundation styles have been examined.Furthermore,wave effects have been investigated.The split installation and overall installation have been illustrated.Methods appropriate when installing a small number of turbines as well as those useful when installing large numbers of turbines were analyzed.This investigation of installation methods for wind turbines should provide practical technical guidance for their installation.

Magnetic Gearbox with an Electric Power Output Port and Fixed Speed Ratio for Wind Energy Applications

Mechanical gearboxes are typically employed with doubly-fed induction generatur-based wind turbines. The main drawback of this solution is the gearbox＇s reliability and maintenance. Using magnetic gearbox in conjunction with the doubly-fed induction generator is an emerging alternative being promoted by the research community which maintains the reduced size doubly-fed machine and overcomes the mechanical gearbox problems reported by field experience. This paper proposes a novel magnetic gearbox configuration in which a conventional planetary magnetic gearbox is equipped with n-phase coils fitted around the ferromagnetic pole-pieces to extract output electrical power. The turbine mechanical power is thus divided into mechanical power to drive the electrical generator and extra electrical power that can be diverted into a storage system to perform the power leveling function. The proposed configuration can also be used to freely modify the power-speed characteristic as seen by the electrical generator, a highly needed feature for grid frequency support.

Dynamic Characteristic Investigation on the Fuel Pressure of Diesel Engines Electronic In-line Pump System

The electronic in-line pump (EIP) is a complex system consisting of mechanical, hydraulic, and electromagnetic parts. Experimental study showed that the fuel pressure of the plunger and the fuel drainage of the pressure system after fuel injection could result in fuel pressure fluctuation in the low pressure system. Such fluctuation exhibited pulsating cycle fluctuation as the amplitude rose with the increase of the injection pulse width. The time domain analysis found that the pressure time history curve and injection cylinders corresponded with a one-to-one relationship. By frequency domain analysis, the result was that with the increase of the working cylinder number, the high frequency amplitude gradually increased and the basic frequency amplitude gradually decreased. The conclusion was that through wavelet transformation, the low pressure signal simultaneously moved towards low frequency as the high frequency of the wavelet transformation signal with the working cylinder number increased. Lastly, by using the numerical model, the study investigated the simulation research concerning the relationship of the fluctuation dynamic characteristic in the low pressure system and the fuel injection characteristic of the high pressure system, completing the conclusions obtained by the experimental study.

Methodology for Obtaining Electricity-Price Patterns in Customer Response Programs

The main objective of electricity regulators when establishing electricity markets is to decrease the cost of electricity through competition. However, this scenario cannot be achieved without a full participation of the electricity demand by reacting against electricity prices. The aim of this research is to develop tools for helping customers and aggregators to join price and demand response programs, while helping them to hedge against the risk of short-term price volatility. In this way, the capacity of and hybrid methodology （Self-Organizing Maps and Statistical Ward＇s Linkage） to classify high electricity market prices is analysed. Besides, with the help of Non-Parametric Estimation, some price-patterns were found in the abovementioned clusters. The contained knowledge within these patterns supplies customer market-based information on which to base its energy use decisions. The interest for this participation of customers in markets is growing in developed countries to obtain a higher elasticity in demand. Results show the capability of this approach to improve data management and select coherent policies to accomplish cleared demand offers amongst different price scenarios in a more flexible way.

Study on Impact of Wind Turbines on Static Voltage Stability of Power System

The static voltage stability of the power system integrating wind farms adopting different kinds of wind turbines is analyzed. Through the simulation of one certain local power grid in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the PV curves at the point of common coupling (PCC), key buses and important substations are plotted; the variation of voltage as well as the limit and margin of static stability are analyzed. It is resulted from the simulation that the limit of static voltage at weak nodes is lower, and the static voltage of the power system with wind farms adopting doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG) is more stable than that with wind farms adopting common asynchronous generators.

Connecting Wind Turbine Generator to Distribution Power Grid--A Preload Flow Calculation Stage

A distribution grid is generally characterized by a high R/X （resistance/reactance） ratio and it is radial in nature. By design, a distribution grid system is not an active network, and it is normally designed in such a way that power flows from transmission system via distribution system to consumers. But in a situation when wind turbines are connected to the distribution grid, the power source will change from one source to two sources, in this case, network is said to be active. This may probably have an impact on the distribution grid to whenever the wind turbine is connected. The best way to know the impact of wind turbine on the distribution grid in question is by carrying out load flow analysis on that system with and without the connection of wind turbines. Two major fundamental calculations： the steady-state voltage variation at the PCC （point of common coupling） and the calculation of short-circuit power of the grid system at the POC （point of connection） are necessary before carrying out the load flow study on the distribution grid. This paper, therefore, considers these pre-load flow calculations that are necessary before carrying out load flow study on the test distribution grid. These calculations are carded out on a test distribution system.

Research on DCC Strategy for Grid-Connected Inverter of D-PMSG under Unbalanced Network Voltage Conditions

According to performance analysis of a three-phase grid-connected inverter mathematical model of a directly-driven wind turbine with a permanent magnet synchronous generator (D-PMSG) under unbalanced network voltage conditions, a dual current-loop control strategy (DCC) oriented on positive voltage and negative current is proposed to inhibit the DC voltage fluctuation. Meanwhile, a notch filter is introduced into the conventional control strategy of a phase-locked loop to complete the low voltage ride through (LVRT) ability of the wind generator. A 1.5-MW D-PMSG with a back-to-back IGBT frequency converter was simulated in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment, and simulation results showed that: the maximum wind power tracking was achieved in this system and the proposed DCC strategy could successfully inhibit the rising aging of DC voltage and enhance the ride-through capability of D-PMSG wind generation system under unbalanced network voltage conditions.