The effect of minimum thrust coefficient control strategy on power output and loads of a wind farm

The use of down-regulation control strategies for wind turbines potentially
optimises the wind farm performance. One of the promising strategies to minimise the wind farm loads and maximise the energy production is by down-regulating the upstream turbine with minimum thrust coefficient (C_t). Nonetheless, a majority of minimum C_t control studies is confined to fatigue load analysis of a single turbine. Therefore, this paper focuses on the investigation of the fatigue loads when operating turbines in a wind farm using a minimum C_t control strategy, as well as extreme loads and energy production. The control strategy is implemented in the DTU Wind Energy controller coupled with the aero-elastic code, HAWC2. The Dynamic Wake Meandering model in HAWC2 is used so that the wake deficits generated from the upstream turbines realistically represent the minimum C_t control strategy, as well as the interactions between wakes. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate the possible wind farm operating strategy using minimum C_t control that leads to decrease the lifetime fatigue loads and increase the overall energy production of a wind farm due to the potential extended lifetime of certain wind turbine components.