System and method for upgrading multivendor wind turbines

• US 10,012,213 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2016
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology, LLC (GE Vernova, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Chacon, Joseph Lawrence, Fish, William Earl, Pennington, Noah, Cardinal, Mark Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Vincent
• Application Number:
  US15/015,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20170226987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 17/00 Monitoring or testing of wind motors, e.g. diagnostics testing during commissioning of wind motors F03D13/30
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/0244 for braking
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/0264 for stopping; controlling in emergency situations orientating out of wind F03D7/0208
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/042 by means of an electrical or electronic controller
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/047 characterised by the controller architecture, e.g. multiple processors or data communications
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2230/60 Assembly methods
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2230/80 Repairing, retrofitting or upgrading methods
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/303 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/321 Wind directions
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/334 Vibration measurements
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/504 electronic means, e.g. electronic tubes, transistors or IC's within an electronic circuit
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/80 Devices generating input signals, e.g. transducers, sensors, cameras or strain gauges
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0428 Safety, monitoring G05B19/0423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/14116 Safe, emergency shutdown, esd of system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2619 Wind turbines
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0267 Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0291 Switching into safety or degraded mode, e.g. protection and supervision after failure
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for controlling and/or upgrading aftermarket multivendor wind turbines. The system includes a turbine controller configured to control operations of the wind turbine, a safety device configured to provide a signal indicative of a health status of the safety device, and a secondary controller inserted between the safety device and the turbine controller. The secondary controller is configured to receive the signal from the safety device over a communication interface. As such, if the signal indicates a normal health status, the secondary controller is configured to send the signal to the turbine controller, i.e. maintain normal operation. Alternatively, if the signal indicates a poor health status, the secondary controller is configured to adjust the signal based at least in part on a signal bias to an adjusted signal and to provide the adjusted signal to the turbine controller.

Claims

1. A system for controlling a wind turbine, comprising:

a turbine controller configured to control operations of the wind turbine;

a safety device configured to provide an initial signal indicative of a health status of the safety device;

a secondary controller inserted between the safety device and the turbine controller, the secondary controller being programmed with an existing braking procedure of the wind turbine, the secondary controller configured to receive the initial signal from the safety device over a communication interface;

wherein, if the initial signal indicates a normal health status, the secondary controller is configured to send the initial signal to the turbine controller, and

wherein, if the initial signal indicates a poor health status, the secondary controller is configured to;

adjust the initial signal based at least in part on a signal bias to an adjusted signal, the adjusted signal comprising an updated braking procedure for the wind turbine; and

provide the adjusted signal to the turbine controller.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the secondary controller is configured to adjust the initial signal without accessing computer-readable instructions implemented by the turbine controller.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety device comprises at least one of an aftermarket safety device or an existing safety device of the wind turbine.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety device comprises at least one of an aviation light, a vibration sensor, a loading sensor, an icing sensor, a temperature sensor, a wind condition sensor, a fire safety device, a bird or bat detector, or shadow flicker sensors.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the existing braking procedure comprising a hard brake procedure, a medium brake procedure, and a soft brake procedure.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the secondary controller is further configured to determine set points for existing wind turbines sensors for each of the hard brake procedure, the medium brake procedure, and the soft brake procedure.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the existing braking procedure is automatically determined via the secondary controller using an auto-tuning process, the auto-tuning process comprising:

for each of a plurality of input conditions, incrementally adjusting the signal bias among a plurality of incremental signal bias values;

monitoring a braking procedure of the wind turbine at each of the plurality of incremental signal bias values, and

selecting the signal bias for the input conditions from the plurality of incremental signal bias values based at least in part on the braking procedure associated with each of the plurality of incremental signal bias values.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the existing braking procedure of the wind turbine is determined manually.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the secondary controller comprises an interface configured to receive one or more input signals from a plurality of sensors, the secondary controller configured to determine the signal bias based at least in part on the one or more input signals.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more input signals comprise a signal indicative of a shaft speed, a power output, vibrations, temperature, or wind speed.

11. A method for controlling a wind turbine, the wind turbine comprising a safety device in communication with a wind turbine controller over a signal path, the method comprising:

inserting a secondary controller between the safety device and the wind turbine controller in the signal path the secondary controller being programmed with an existing braking procedure of the wind turbine;

generating, via the safety device, an initial signal indicative of a health status of the safety device;

receiving, via a communication interface, the initial signal at the secondary controller;

determining, at the secondary controller, an adjusted signal that is different from the initial signal based at least in part on a signal bias, the adjusted signal comprising an updated braking procedure for the wind turbine; and

,

providing the adjusted signal to the wind turbine controller.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the existing braking procedure comprising a hard brake procedure, a medium brake procedure, and a soft brake procedure.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining, via the secondary controller, set points for existing wind turbines sensors for each of the hard brake procedure, the medium brake procedure, and the soft brake procedure.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising automatically determining the existing braking procedure via the secondary controller using an auto-tuning process, the auto-tuning process comprising:

for each of a plurality of input conditions, incrementally adjusting the signal bias among a plurality of incremental signal bias values,

monitoring a braking procedure of the wind turbine at each of the plurality of incremental signal bias values; and

selecting the signal bias for the input conditions from the plurality of incremental signal bias values based at least in part on the braking procedure associated with each of the plurality of incremental signal bias values.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising manually determining the existing braking procedure of the wind turbine.