Benchmarking of Wind Turbine Wake Models in Large Offshore Windfarms

Abstract

Quantifying accurately wind turbine wakes is a key aspect of wind farm economics in large wind farms. This research compares three engineering wake models with power production data from the Horns Rev and Lillgrund offshore wind farms. Single and multiple wake cases are investigated to verify the performance of the models in different conditions. The simulations reveal that the three wake models have similar behaviours for both wind farms although the turbine spacing and the turbulence intensity are different. The results prove the robustness of the models to provide accurate power predictions when the simulations are averaged over wind direction sectors of 30◦. However, all models significantly underpredict the power production of a single row of wind turbines using narrow sectors of 3◦ or 5◦. This discrepancy is discussed and justified by the wind direction uncertainty included in the datasets.