142. EQUIVALENT WIND FARM POWER CURVE ESTIMATION

Abstract

Wind turbine manufacturers publish and certify power curves for their turbines. These turbine power curves are used for planning purposes and estimating total wind power production. When a wind plant consisting of many turbines connects to the utility grid and starts operation, the focus shifts to the entire plant’s performance. An equivalent wind plant power-curve becomes highly desirable and useful in predicting plant output for a given wind forecast. For the purposes of this paper detailed data have been collected from a wind power plant to develop such an equivalent power curve. The method is evaluated using data from operational wind farms and the methods are compared to a modified IEC 61400-12 bin method. This paper will summarize available data, methodology, discuss the validation process and explore the applicability of such an approach on other wind power plants without detailed data.