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Comparison of wind turbine power curves using cup anemometer and pulsed doppler light detection and ranging systems

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Abstract

To clarify the difference in the wind turbine power curves obtained by cup anemometer and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) measurements, an investigation was experimentally performed in the Haengwon wind farm on Jeju Island, South Korea. A LIDAR mounted on the nacelle of a 1.5-MW test wind turbine was used with a met mast and a ground LIDAR positioned at a distance of 2.5 times the rotor diameter from the turbine. The wind speed data obtained by each instrument were compared through linear regression analysis. The rotor equivalent wind speed (REWS) was derived from a cup anemometer and ground LIDAR measurements in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (TEC) standard 61400-12-1, 2nd edition. The scatter plots were drawn using the wind data measured by each instrument and compared in terms of the standard deviation. The power curves drawn from the REWS and nacelle LIDAR measurements were compared with that from the cup anemometer measurements according to IEC 61400-12-1, 1st edition. To quantitatively identify the difference in the power curves, the relative error was calculated using the cup anemometer power curve as a reference. Consequently, the relative error for the power output in the bin interval of 0.5 m/s before the rated wind speed was high, whereas that after the rated was close to 0 %. The relative errors for the power curve from the REWS and the nacelle LIDAR measurements were −0.37 % and 3.01 % on average, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

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Correspondence to Kyungnam Ko.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Hyoung-Bum Kim

Dongheon Shin is a Ph.D. candidate of the multidisciplinary graduate school program for wind energy in Jeju University, Republic of Korea. He held a bachelor’s degree (2012) in earth and marine science and a master’s degree (2015) from the faculty of wind energy engineering, graduate school, Jeju University. He has been studying the power performance testing of wind turbines using a LiDAR system. In addition, he had investigated wind turbine degradation.

Kyungnam Ko is an Associate Professor of the faculty of wind energy engineering, graduate school, Jeju University, Republic of Korea. He earned a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering in 1993 and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1995 at Jeju University. He then received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical system engineering in 2002 from Gunma University, Japan. He has been studying on wind resource assessment, wind farm design, condition monitoring system and power curves of wind turbines using a LiDAR system.

Minsang Kang has been studying to test and improve the power performance of the wind turbines. He held a bachelor’s degree (2012) in mecfia-tronics and a master’s degree (2016) from the wind energy engineering, Graduate School of Industry, Jeju University. He has studies the power performance measurement of wind turbines using a LiDAR system. In addition, he has interest in feasibility study for the onshore and offshore wind farms.

Donghun Ryu is a Principal Researcher of Industrial Standards Division, Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL), Republic of Korea. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1999 from Yonsei University and a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Yonsei University Graduate School in 2005. He has been working in the field of measurement and calibration since he joined KTL in 2006, and his research interests include the calibration of wind LiDARs and the precise measurement of wind flow.

Munjong Kang is a Senior Researcher of Korean Register (KR) in Republic of Korea. He held a bachelor’s degree in 2005 and a master’s degree in 2007 from the mechanical engineering, graduate school, Jeju National University. He has been studying site assessment for wind farm. He is currently carrying out the research for the power performance testing of the wind farm.

Hyunsik Kim is a Senior Researcher of R&D Institute of Visionplus, that conducts wind resource assessment and delivers test environment for that. He has been in charge of LiDAR technology as an expert engineer about nacelle-mounted and ground-based LiDARs. He had completed technical training to test power performance and to correct yaw misalignment of the wind turbine using nacelle-mounted LiDAR from Avent LiDAR technology.

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Shin, D., Ko, K., Kang, M. et al. Comparison of wind turbine power curves using cup anemometer and pulsed doppler light detection and ranging systems. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 1663–1671 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0318-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0318-x

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