GUIDANCE FOR USING MEASUREMENT

DATA FROM ZephIR DM TO ASSESS

TURBINE PERFORMANCE
John Medley, Chris Slinger
ZephIR Lidar

March 2015
 INTRODUCTION

A turbine-mounted ZephIR DM collects a lot of

information about the wind field approaching the turbine.

These notes give some recommendations for

presentation of that information to help understand the
performance of the turbine.

All of the results presented use the 10-minute-averaged

data files (Wind10_*.ZPH) after conversion to CSV.

10-minute-averaged data from the turbine SCADA system

is also used.

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 SOURCES OF DATA
ZephIR DM
Horizontal wind speed at hub height (PDAC)
Turbulence intensity – TI (PDAC)
Wind yaw misalignment (FD)
Mean fit residual (FD)
Air density at hub height (calculated from met station temperature, pressure, humidity)
Bearing (met station)

Turbine SCADA
Yaw
Power output
Turbine status (e.g. On / Off)
Nacelle anemometer speed
Nacelle wind vane direction

Maps
Wind farm layout
Terrain

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 MAP DATA ANALYSIS

AIM
Identify yaw directions that should give
the best quality measurements

METHOD
Identify directions not affected by wakes from near
by turbines
Ref: Section 5.2.2 of IEC 61400-12-1 CDV

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 WIND SPEED ROSE

AIM ZephIR DM DATA

Check wind directions during trial Horizontal wind speed (PDAC)

SCADA DATA
Yaw
Power output
Turbine status (e.g. On / Off)

METHOD
Filter data: Power output > 5 kW
Turbine On
Valid ZephIR measurement
Bin data by turbine yaw (bins 10° wide)
Count number of valid measurements in each bin

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 MEAN FIT RESIDUAL AS A FUNCTION OF TURBINE YAW

AIM ZephIR DM DATA

Check flow complexity using results of fitting Mean fit residual (FD)
measurement data to flow model
SCADA DATA
Yaw
Power output
Turbine status (e.g. On / Off)

METHOD
Filter data: Power output > 5 kW
Turbine On
Valid ZephIR measurement
Bin data by turbine yaw (bins 10° wide)
Calculate mean of 10-minute mean fit residual
values for each bin

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 WIND YAW MISALIGNMENT AS A FUNCTION OF TURBINE YAW

AIM ZephIR DM DATA

Check alignment of turbine with wind Wind yaw misalignment (FD)

SCADA DATA
Yaw
Power output
Turbine status (e.g. On / Off)

METHOD
Filter data: Power output > 5 kW
Turbine On
Valid ZephIR measurement
Bin data by turbine yaw (bins 10° wide)
Calculate mean of 10-minute wind yaw
misalignment values for each bin

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 BASIC POWER CURVES

AIM ZephIR DM DATA

Check performance of turbine against expectation Horizontal wind speed (PDAC)
at hub height or “rotor-equivalent”

SCADA DATA
Yaw
Power output
Turbine status (e.g. On / Off)

METHOD
Filter data: Power output > 5 kW
Turbine On
Valid ZephIR measurement
Valid yaw direction
Bin data by wind speed (bins 0.5 m/s wide)
Calculate mean of 10-minute power output values
for each bin (plotted in red)
Compare with manufacturer’s power curve (plotted
in black)

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 POWER CURVES: AIR DENSITY CORRECTED

AIM ZephIR DM DATA

Check performance of turbine against expectation, Horizontal wind speed (PDAC)
accounting for changes in air density at hub height or “rotor-equivalent”
Temperature, pressure, humidity from met station

SCADA DATA
Yaw
Power output
Turbine status (e.g. On / Off)

METHOD
As before, plus:
Calculate air density from environmental
measurements
Apply density normalisation as described in:
Section 8.1.1 of IEC 61400-12-1 CDV

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 POWER CURVES: TURBULENCE NORMALISATION

AIM ZephIR DM DATA

Check performance of turbine against expectation,
accounting for changes in air density, turbulence intensity
Horizontal wind speed (PDAC)
at hub height or “rotor-equivalent”
Temperature, pressure, humidity from met station
Turbulence intensity (PDAC) from hub height wind
speed measurement

SCADA DATA
Yaw
Power output
Turbine status (e.g. On / Off)

METHOD
As before, plus:
Apply turbulence normalisation as described in:
Annex M of IEC 61400-12-1 CDV
The procedure has been coded in free software,
written in Python and distributed by the
Power Curve Working Group:
http://www.pcwg.org/

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 POWER CURVES: TURBULENCE NORMALISATION

OUTLINE METHOD
Calculate* a zero-turbulence power curve:
the power curve that the turbine would have if there was no turbulence

PTI 0 v 
For each 10-minute averaged power, wind speed and TI value:
Calculate* the simulated 10-minute averaged power output based on the zero-turbulence power curve
for the mean measured wind speed and measured turbulence intensity

Psim vmeas , TImeas 

Calculate* the simulated 10-minute averaged power output based on the zero-turbulence power curve
for the mean measured wind speed and a reference turbulence intensity

Psim vmeas , TI ref 

Normalise the measured 10-minute averaged power value to the reference turbulence intensity level:

Pnorm  Pmeas  Psim vmeas , TImeas   Psim vmeas , TIref 

* For details of the calculations see the IEC standard or the PCWG software

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