EE-452: ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEMS (RENEWABLE)

RE NO. 4
LECT U

DR. TAHIR EJAZ

CLASS : EE
 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
Weibull and Rayleigh Statistics
A very general expression that is often
used as the starting point for
characterizing the statistics of
windspeeds is called the Weibull
probability density function:

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
where k is called the shape parameter,
and c is called the scale parameter.
As the name implies, the shape
parameter k changes the look of the p.d.f.
For example, the Weibull p.d.f. with a
fixed scale parameter (c = 8) but varying
shape parameters k is shown in the figure.

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
For k = 1, it looks like an exponential
decay function;

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
It would probably not be a good site for a
wind turbine since most of the winds are
at such low speeds.
For k = 2, the wind blows fairly
consistently, but there are periods during
which the winds blow much harder than
the more typical speeds bunched near the
peak of the p.d.f.

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
For k = 3, the function resembles the
familiar bell-shaped curve, and the site
would be one where the winds are almost
always blowing and doing so at a fairly
constant speed, such as the trade winds
do.

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
Of the three Weibull p.d.f.s in previous
figure, intuition probably would lead us to
think that the middle one, for which k = 2,
is the most realistic for a likely wind
turbine site; that is, it has winds that are
mostly pretty strong, with periods of low
wind and some really good high-speed
winds as well.

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
In fact, when little detail is known about
the wind regime at a site, the usual
starting point is to assume k = 2.
When the shape parameter k is equal to
2, the p.d.f. is given its own name, the
Rayleigh probability density function:

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
The impact of changing the scale
parameter c for a Rayleigh p.d.f. is shown
in the figure:

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
Or, the other way around:

The Rayleigh p.d.f. in terms of average

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
Average Power in the Wind with
Rayleigh Statistics
The starting point for wind prospecting
is to gather enough site data to at least be
able to estimate average windspeed.
That can most easily be done with an
anemometer that has a revolution counter
calibrated to indicate miles of wind that
passes.
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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
Dividing miles of wind by elapsed time
gives an average wind speed.
These “wind odometers” are modestly
priced and simple to use.
Coupling average windspeed with the
assumption that the wind speed
distribution follows Rayleigh statistics
enables us to find the average power in
the wind.
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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
The average value of the cube of
windspeed:

An alternative equation is as under

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
The above equation is very interesting
and very useful.
It says that if we assume Rayleigh
statistics then the average of the cube of
windspeed is just 1.91 times the average
wind speed cubed.

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND
Assuming Rayleigh statistics, we can
rewrite the fundamental relationship for
average power in the wind as

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND

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 AVERAGE POWER IN THE WIND

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 ESTIMATES OF WIND TURBINE
ENERGY
How much of the energy in the wind can
be captured and converted into
electricity?
The answer depends on a number of
factors, including the characteristics of
the machine (rotor, gearbox, generator,
tower, controls), the terrain (topography,
surface roughness, obstructions), and, of
course, the wind regime (velocity, timing,
predictability).
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 ESTIMATES OF WIND TURBINE
ENERGY
It also depends on the purpose behind
the question.
Some energy estimates can be made with
“back of the envelope” calculations, and
others require extensive wind turbine
performance specifications and wind data
for the site.

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 ESTIMATES OF WIND TURBINE
ENERGY
Annual Energy Using Average Wind
Turbine Efficiency
Suppose that the wind power density
has been evaluated for a site.
If we make reasonable assumptions of
the overall conversion efficiency into
electricity by the wind turbine, we can
estimate the annual energy delivered.

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 ESTIMATES OF WIND TURBINE
ENERGY
In optimum conditions, a modern rotor
will deliver about three-fourths of that
potential.
To keep from overpowering the
generator, however, the rotor must spill
some of the most energetic high-speed
winds, and low-speed winds are also
neglected when they are too slow to
overcome friction and generator losses.
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 ESTIMATES OF WIND TURBINE
ENERGY

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 ESTIMATES OF WIND TURBINE
ENERGY

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 WIND FARMS
Unless it is a single wind turbine for a
particular site, such as an off-grid home in
the country, most often when a good wind
site has been found it makes sense to
install a large number of wind turbines in
what is often called a wind farm or a wind
park.

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 WIND FARMS
Obvious advantages result from
clustering wind turbines together at a
windy site.
Reduced site development costs,
simplified connections to transmission
lines, and more centralized access for
operation and maintenance, all are
important considerations.

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 WIND FARMS
So how many turbines can be installed at
a given site?
Certainly wind turbines located too close
together will result in upwind turbines
interfering with the wind received by
those located downwind.
As we know, the wind is slowed as some
of its energy is extracted by a rotor, which
reduces the power available to downwind
machines.
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 WIND FARMS
Eventually, however, some distance
downwind, the wind speed recovers.
Theoretical studies of square arrays with
uniform, equal spacing illustrate the
degradation of performance when wind
turbines are too close together.

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 WIND FARMS
For one such study, Figure 6.28 shows
array efficiency.

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 WIND FARMS
The parameter is the number of turbines
in an equally-spaced array.
That is, for example, a 2 × 2 array
consists of four wind turbines equally
spaced within a square area, while an 8 ×
8 array is 64 turbines in a square area.
The larger the array, the greater the
interference, so array efficiency drops.

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 WIND FARMS
Figure 6.28 shows that interference out
to at least 9 rotor diameters for all of
these square array sizes, but for small
arrays performance degradation is
modest, less than about 20% for 6-
diameter spacing with 16 turbines.

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 WIND FARMS
Intuitively, an array area should not be
square, as was the case for the study
shown in Fig. 6.28, but rectangular with
only a few long rows perpendicular to the
prevailing winds, with each row having
many turbines.
Experience has yielded some rough rules
of-thumb for tower spacing of such
rectangular arrays.
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 WIND FARMS
Recommended spacing is 3–5 rotor
diameters separating towers within a row
and 5–9 diameters between rows.
The offsetting, or staggering, of one row
of towers behind another, as illustrated in
Fig. 6.29 is also common.

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 WIND FARMS

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 WIND FARMS

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 WIND FARMS

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 WIND FARMS

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
The techniques already described that
help us go from power in the wind to
electrical energy delivered have used only
simple estimates of overall system
efficiency linked to wind probability
statistics.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Now we will introduce techniques that
can be applied to individual wind turbines
based on their own specific performance
characteristics.
Some Aerodynamics
In order to understand some aspects of
wind turbine performance, we need a
brief introduction to how rotor blades
extract energy from the wind.
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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Begin by considering the simple airfoil
cross section shown in Fig. 6.30a.
An airfoil, whether it is the wing of an
airplane or the blade of a windmill, takes
advantage of Bernoulli’s principle to
obtain lift.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Air moving over the top of the airfoil has
a greater distance to travel before it can
rejoin the air that took the short cut
under the foil.
That means that the air pressure on top
is lower than that under the airfoil, which
creates the lifting force that holds an
airplane up or that causes a wind turbine
blade to rotate.
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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Describing the forces on a wind turbine
blade is a bit more complicated than for a
simple aircraft wing.
A rotating turbine blade sees air moving
toward it not only from the wind itself,
but also from the relative motion of the
blade as it rotates.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
As shown in Fig.
6.30b, the combination
of wind and blade
motion is like adding
two vectors, with the
resultant moving
across the airfoil at the
correct angle to obtain
lift that moves the
rotor along.
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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Since the blade is moving much faster at
the tip than near the hub, the blade must
be twisted along its length to keep the
angles right.
Up to a point, increasing the angle
between the airfoil and the wind (called
the angle of attack), improves lift at the
expense of increased drag.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
As shown in Fig. 6.31, however,
increasing the angle of attack too much
can result in a phenomenon known as
stall.
When a wing stalls, the airflow over the
top no longer sticks to the surface and the
resulting turbulence destroys lift.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
When an aircraft climbs too steeply, stall
can have tragic results.
Idealized Wind Turbine Power Curve
The most important technical
information for a specific wind turbine is
the power curve.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
It shows the relationship between
windspeed and generator electrical
output.
A somewhat idealized power curve is
shown.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Cut-in Windspeed.
Low-speed winds may not have enough
power to overcome friction in the drive
train of the turbine and, even if it does and
the generator is rotating, the electrical
power generated may not be enough to
offset the power required by the
generator field windings.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
The cut-in windspeed VC is the minimum
needed to generate net power.
Since no power is generated at
windspeeds below VC, that portion of the
wind’s energy is wasted.
Fortunately, there isn’t much energy in
those low-speed winds anyway, so usually
not much is lost.
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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Rated Windspeed.
As velocity increases above the cut-in
windspeed, the power delivered by the
generator tends to rise as the cube of
windspeed.
When winds reach the rated windspeed
VR, the generator is delivering as much
power as it is designed for.

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 WIND TURBINE PERFORMANCE
CALCULATIONS
Above VR, there must be some way to
shed some of the wind’s power or else the
generator may be damaged.
Three approaches are common on large
machines: an active pitch-control system,
a passive stall-control design, and a
combination of the two.

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