Digital Twin Interface for Operating Wind Farms

• US 20160333854A1
• Filed: 12/10/2015
• Published: 11/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology, LLC (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Lund, Arnold M., Mochel, Karl, Lin, Jeng-Weei, Onetto, Raimundo, Srinivasan, Jayanthi, Gregg, Peter, Bergman, Jeffrey Eric, Hartling, Kenneth D. Jr., Ahmed, Anwar, Chotai, Sham
• Granted Patent: US 9,995,278 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 21/003 Arrangements for testing or measuring for measuring vibrations G01H
• CPC Class Codes: F01D 21/14 responsive to other specific conditions
• 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 7/042 by means of an electrical or electronic controller
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/046 with learning or adaptive control, e.g. self-tuning, fuzzy logic or neural network
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/047 characterised by the controller architecture, e.g. multiple processors or data communications
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/048 controlling wind farms
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2230/80 Repairing, retrofitting or upgrading methods
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/32 Wind speeds
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/321 Wind directions
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/323 Air humidity
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/324 Air pressure
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/325 Air temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/504 electronic means, e.g. electronic tubes, transistors or IC's within an electronic circuit
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/311 Air humidity
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/312 Air pressure
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/313 Air temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2270/54 by electronic means, e.g. electronic tubes, transistors or IC's within an electronic circuit
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/021 in which a variable is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/40 Data acquisition and logging for input to computer G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 : Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/28 : The renewable source being wind energy wind motors F03D
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/38 : Arrangements for parallely feeding a single network by two or more generators, converters or transformers
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 : Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 : Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/76 : Power conversion electric or electronic aspects
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/70 : Smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the energy generation sector
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 : Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 : Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a digital twin interface for managing a wind farm having a plurality of wind turbines. The digital twin interface includes a graphical user interface (GUI) displaying a digital equivalent of the wind farm. For example, the digital equivalent of the wind farm includes environmental information and a digital representation of each of the wind turbines arranged in the wind farm. The interface also includes a control icon arranged with each of the digital representations of the wind turbines. In certain embodiments, the control icons of each wind turbine may correspond to a control dial. More specifically, the control icon of each digital representation of the wind turbines includes information regarding current and optimum operating conditions of the digital wind turbine. The interface also includes one or more control features configured to optimize performance of the wind farm.

Claims

1. A digital twin interface for managing a wind farm having a plurality of wind turbines, the interface comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) displaying a digital equivalent of the wind farm, the digital equivalent of the wind farm comprising environmental information and a digital representation of each of the wind turbines arranged in the wind farm;

a control icon arranged with each of the digital representations of the wind turbines, the control icon of each digital representation of the wind turbines comprising information regarding current and optimum operating conditions of the digital wind turbine; and

one or more control features configured to optimize performance of the wind farm.

2. The interface of claim 1, wherein the environmental information comprises at least one of topographical information or site conditions.

3. The interface of claim 1, wherein the one or more control features comprises one or more selection buttons, each selection button corresponding to one of the wind turbines so as to allow a user to select one or more of the wind turbines for at least one of monitoring or modifying operating conditions.

4. The interface of claim 3, wherein each of the selection buttons is further associated with wind turbine information comprising at least one of a manufacturer of the wind turbine, age of the wind turbine, size of the wind turbine, or historical information of the wind turbine.

5. The interface of claim 1, wherein the one or more control features comprises at least one of a wind direction dial, a wind flow meter illustrating the wind flow across the wind farm, a power output of the wind farm, or a turbine speed adjuster configured to allow a user to modify a speed of a selected wind turbine.

6. The interface of claim 1, further comprising a wake representation between each of the wind turbines of the wind farm.

7. The interface of claim 1, wherein the control icons correspond with a control dial.

8. A computer-implemented method for generating a digital twin of a wind farm having a plurality of wind turbines, the method comprising:

receiving, via a user interface, topography and environmental information of the wind farm;

generating, via the user interface, a digital representation of each of the wind turbines in the wind farm based on one or more user inputs;

displaying, via the user interface, a digital equivalent of the wind farm based on the topography and environmental information of the wind farm and the digital representations of each of the wind turbines; and

optimizing, via one or more control features displayed on the user interface, performance of the wind farm.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the digital representation of each of the wind turbines in the wind farm based on one or more user inputs further comprises:

receiving wind turbine information for each of the wind turbines, the wind turbine information comprising at least one of a manufacturer of the wind turbine, age of the wind turbine, size of the wind turbine, or historical information of the wind turbine.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein displaying the digital equivalent of the wind farm further comprises:

displaying, via the user interface, one or more control icons arranged with each of the digital representations of the wind turbines, the control icon of each digital representation of the wind turbines comprising information regarding current and optimum operating conditions of the digital wind turbine.

11. A computer-implemented method for operating a wind farm having a plurality of wind turbines, the method comprising:

generating, via one or more processors, a computer model of the wind farm based on at least one of historical wind farm data, sensor data, or current operating data of the wind farm;

from the computer model, generating a digital twin representation of the wind farm via one or more processors;

displaying, via a user interface, the digital twin representation of the wind turbine;

assessing current operating parameters of one or more of the wind turbines in the wind farm based on the digital twin representation; and

determining updated operating parameters for the wind farm based on the assessment.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the historical wind farm data, sensor data, or current operating data of the wind farm comprises information regarding at least one of wind speed, wind direction, wake, geographical information, weather conditions, topographical information, or wind turbine information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the wind turbine information comprises at least one of a manufacturer of the wind turbine, age of the wind turbine, size of the wind turbine, historical information of the wind turbine, or operating conditions of the wind turbine.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the operating conditions of the wind turbine further comprise at least one of turbine speed, turbine loading, turbine location within the wind farm, maintenance schedules, power output, pitch angle, yaw angle, torque, tip speed ratio, or individual turbine settings.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein assessing current operating parameters of one or more of the wind turbines in the wind farm based on the digital twin representation further comprises:

selecting at least one wind turbine to evaluate;

implementing at least one change to a current operating state of the selected wind turbine, and

observing an effect of the change to the current operating state of the selected wind turbine.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein implementing at least one change to the current operating state of the selected wind turbine further comprises implementing the at least one change to the current operating state of the selected wind turbine via at least one control feature displayed on the user interface, wherein the one or more control features comprises at least one of a wind direction dial, a wind flow meter illustrating the wind flow across the wind farm, a power output of the wind farm, or a turbine speed adjuster configured to allow a user to modify a speed of a selected wind turbine.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein observing the effect of the change to the current operating state of the selected wind turbine further comprises observing how the wind farm operates under at least one of one or more weather conditions, business scenarios, or maintenance scenarios.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein observing how the wind farm operates under at least one of one or more weather conditions, business scenarios, or maintenance scenarios further comprises observing a wake effect on neighboring turbines after implementing the change.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the digital twin representation of the wind farm is not communicatively coupled with a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system of the wind farm.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising, machine learning, via the one or more processors, one or more control parameters for the wind turbine.