Wind turbine siting and maintenance prediction

• US 8,495,911 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Issued: 07/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vestas Wind Systems A/S
• Original Assignee: Vestas Wind Systems A/S
• Inventors: Christensen, Lars Christian, Andersen, Kim Emil, Jrgensen, Henrik Kanstrup
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US12/675,354
• Publication Number:
  US 20100312594A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,796 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 73/170.01
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 80/50 Maintenance or repair
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/20 to optimise the performance of a machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction
• 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

A computer-implemented method for determining a site for a wind turbine within a confined geographical target region on the basis of an estimate of a maintenance parameter comprises determining a wind climate at the target region, the wind climate including e.g. average wind speed, pre-dominant wind directions, or turbulence intensities. A function expressing the maintenance parameter of the wind turbine as a function of the flow characteristics is defined, and the function is applied to the geographical position to compute an estimated value of the maintenance parameter at that position. Meteorological measurements may be used to obtain the flow characteristics. Wind measurements performed at one location may be numerically extrapolated by numerical methods, e.g. by CFD, to other locations. The maintenance parameter may be expressed as a maintenance risk, number of component replacements, or as a maintenance cost per energy unit. Three-dimensional visualization of wind turbines, e.g. in GoogleEarth™ is further provided by the invention.

Claims

1. A method for determining a position for at least one wind turbine within a confined geographical target region, the method comprising:

defining a plurality of geographical locations within the target region;

determining a plurality of wind flow characteristics in each of said geographical locations, said flow characteristics including at least a wind velocity and a turbulence intensity;

applying a function, which defines a relationship between a maintenance parameter of the at least one wind turbine and at least said flow characteristics, to each of the geographical locations within the target region to compute, using one or more computer processors, a value of the at least one maintenance parameter at each of the geographical locations within the target region, wherein the maintenance parameter is associated with at least one of a cost, a risk and an activity for maintaining one or more components of the wind turbine; and

selecting one of the geographical locations as the position for the at least one wind turbine on the basis of the computed maintenance parameter values.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving meteorological measurement data obtained at one of the geographical locations, said meteorological measurement data including at least wind velocities, wind directions and turbulence intensities;

extrapolating the meteorological measurement data by means of a numerical method using the one or more computer processors to obtain said plurality of wind flow characteristics in each of the geographical locations within the geographical region.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an output device for outputting a representation of the computed values of the at least one maintenance parameter, the output device including a monitor, and wherein the representation of the computed maintenance parameter values includes a map of the geographical target region, in which the computed maintenance parameter value in each of the geographical locations is represented in the corresponding positions in the map.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said function expressing the maintenance parameter of the wind turbine further is a function of a time-dependent variable.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the time-dependent variable is one of:

time and accumulated power production of the at least one wind turbine.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one maintenance parameter is a maintenance parameter of at least one component of the wind turbine.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, during application of said function, the step of estimating the expected number of replacements of a given wind turbine component during the expected life time of the wind turbine.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the maintenance parameter includes a maintenance cost expressed as a monetary amount per energy unit produced.

9. The method according to claim 8, comprising the step of computing the maintenance cost as the sum of computed maintenance costs of a plurality of wind turbine components at a given time divided by the accumulated energy produced at that time.

10. The method according to claim 1, comprising the step of estimating at least one maintenance parameter of a plurality of wind turbines, and applying said function to take mutual aerodynamic effects of the wind turbines into account.

11. A computer system for determining a site for at least one wind turbine within a confined geographical target region, the computer system comprising:

a computer processor; and

a memory containing a program, that when executed on the computer processor, performs an operation for processing data, comprising;

defining a plurality of geographical locations within the target region;

determining a plurality of wind flow characteristics in each of said geographical locations, said flow characteristics including at least a wind velocity and a turbulence intensity;

applying a function, which represents a relationship between a maintenance parameter of the at least one wind turbine and at least said flow characteristics, to each of the geographical locations within the target region to compute a value of the at least one maintenance parameter at each of the geographical locations within the target region, wherein the maintenance parameter is associated with at least one of a cost, a risk and an activity for maintaining one or more components of the wind turbine; and

selecting one of the geographical locations as the position for the at least one wind turbine on the basis of the computed maintenance parameter values.

12. The computer system according to claim 11, further comprising:

receiving meteorological measurement data obtained at one of the geographical locations, said meteorological measurement data including at least wind velocities, wind directions and turbulence intensities;

extrapolating the meteorological measurement data by means of a numerical method using the one or more computer processors to obtain said plurality of wind flow characteristics in each of the geographical locations within the geographical region.

13. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the function is a density function that, when executed on the computer processor, yields a value of the maintenance parameter.