ADAPTIVE NOISE CONTROL FOR WIND TURBINE

• US 20190331093A1
• Filed: 11/24/2017
• Published: 10/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vestas Wind Systems A/S
• Original Assignee: Vestas Wind Systems A/S
• Inventors: QVIST, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 11,220,997 B2
• Time in Patent Office: 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 7/0224 Adjusting blade pitch
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/0296 to prevent, counteract or reduce noise emissions
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/048 controlling wind farms
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2240/96 as part of a wind turbine farm
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2260/96 Preventing, counteracting or reducing vibration or noise
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/80 Devices generating input signals, e.g. transducers, sensors, cameras or strain gauges
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction

Abstract

A control system for one or more wind turbines comprising an RF receiver used as a method for adaptively controlling the noise mode of operation of a wind turbine. Preferably, this involves multilateration to determine location of RF sources near wind turbindes of a wind turbine park. The RF receivers would detect nearby RF signals in multiple spectrums, in particular mobile telecommunication signals (GSM/UMTS), to identify and localize RF sources near to the wind turbine(s). This information is then be processed to identify which RF sources are likely to be linked to a real person near the wind turbine, and this can be used to adjust the noise mode of the wind turbine accordingly. Thereby maximizing energy production from the wind turbine in absence of nearby people, while keeping noise low when people are nearby.

Claims

1. A control system for controlling a noise mode of operation of a wind turbine in a wind turbine park, the control system comprising a processor programmed to perform an operation, comprising:

receiving inputs from a plurality of radio frequency receivers located at positions in or near respective wind turbines in the wind turbine park,

calculating a measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source near a wind turbine of the wind turbine park in response to the inputs from the plurality of radio frequency receivers, and

controlling the noise mode of operation of one or more wind turbines in the wind turbine park according to the measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source.

2. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises calculating a measure indicative of a location of a plurality of single radio frequency sources within a predefined area around at least one wind turbine of the wind turbine park in response to the inputs from the plurality of radio frequency receivers.

3. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises determing a location of radio frequency source by performing a multilateration calculation in response to inputs from at least three radio frequency receivers.

4. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises performing a source classification of a single radio frequency source.

5. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises individually controlling the noise mode of operation of a plurality of wind turbines in the wind turbine park in response to the measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source.

6. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the noise mode of operation of the one or more wind turbines is controlled by selecting between a number of predefined noise modes of operation in response to the measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source.

7. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the controlling the noise mode of operation of one or more wind turbines comprises controlling at least blade pitch.

8. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the calculating a measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source is performed within a limited, predefined radio frequency band comprising at least one of:

the GSM band, the UMTS, the DCMA2000 band, and the LTE band.

9. The control system according to claim 1, implemented at least partly on a wind park server arranged to control the wind turbine park, wherein said wind park server is connected to at least three radio frequency receivers via a wired or wireless network, so as to allow time synchronization of a radio frequency signal received from one source location via the at least three radio frequency receivers.

10. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises continuously updateing the measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source, and adjusting the noise mode of operation of at least one or the wind turbines of the wind turbine park accordingly.

11. The control system according to claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises:

receiving inputs from the plurality of radio frequency receivers, to calculating measures indicative of locations of radio frequency sources over a period of time,

calculating a statistical measure in response to the measures indicative of locations of radio frequency sources over a period of time, and

controlling the noise mode of operation of one or more wind turbines in the wind turbine park according to the statistical measure.

12. The control system according to claim 11, wherein the operation further comprises:

calculating the statistical measure data over a period of a plurality of days,

determining different first and second noise modes of operation accordingly, and

controlling the noise modes of operation of the at least one wind turbine of the wind park in response to the day time and night time noise modes of operation.

13. A wind turbine park comprising:

at least one wind turbine,

a plurality of radio frequency receivers, and

a control system, configured to;

calculate a measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source near the at least one wind turbine in response to inputs from the plurality of radio frequency receivers, and

controlling a noise mode of operation of the at least one wind turbine according to the measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source.

14. Method for controlling a noise mode of operation of a wind turbine in a wind turbine park, the method comprising:

receiving inputs from a plurality of radio frequency receivers located at positions in or near respective wind turbines in the wind turbine park,

calculating a measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source near a wind turbine of the wind turbine park in response to the inputs from the plurality of radio frequency receivers, and

controlling the noise mode of operation of one or more wind turbines in the wind turbine park according to the measure indicative of a location of a radio frequency source.

15. (canceled)