General Electric Company

General Electric Renovables Espana, S.l.

General Electric Corporation Gmbh

Bernard P Landa

Xu Fu

Samuel Bryan Shartzer

Pierino Gianni Bonanni

Thomas Frank Fric

Thomas Ernst Dinjus

Scott Charles Evans

Ulrich Werner Neumann

Suresh Subramanian

Darren John Danielsen

Thomas Paul Feist

Kirk Gee Pierce

Pranav Agarwal

Ramesh Hariharan

Rong Li

Kevin James Standish

Lawrence Donald Willey

Tong Zhao

Ulrich Uphues

Collin McKee Sheppard

Gert Torbohm

Wit Bushko

Shuang Gu

Dhiraj Arora

Joseph T Woods

Nadine Schuell

Kazunao Kubotera

Michael Gregory Brown

Carlos Eduardo Latorre

Negel Ernesto Martin

Nikolina Kourteva Kristeva

Thomas Omar Converse

Kevin H Dal

Daniel Furlano

Lane Porter

Joerg Wanink

Lawrence D Willey

Negel E Martin

A method and associated system are provided for determining a yaw heading (&#x3b8;) of a wind turbine, the wind turbine having a tower and a nacelle that includes a machine head and rotor at a top thereof. The method includes configuring a single rover receiver of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) at a fixed position relative to the nacelle. A GNSS geographic location of a tower top pivot point (TPP) of the wind turbine is determined, as well as an angular offset of the rover receiver (&#x3b2;) relative to a centerline axis of the nacelle. Based on the GNSS geo-location of the TPP and a GNSS geo-location of the rover receiver, an angular vector () relative to North of a line between the TPP and the rover receiver is determined. The yaw heading (&#x3b8;) is computed from a difference between the angle () and the angular offset (&#x3b2;) of the rover receiver.

Method and system for determining yaw heading of a wind turbine

A method for controlling pitching of at least one rotor blade of a wind turbine includes receiving, via one or more position localization sensors, position data relating to the at least one rotor blade of the wind turbine. Further, the method includes determining, via a controller, a blade deflection signal of the at least one rotor blade based on the position data. Moreover, the method includes determining, via a computer-implemented model stored in the controller, a pitch command for the at least one rotor blade as a function of the blade deflection signal and an azimuth angle of the at least one rotor blade.

Pitch control of a wind turbine based position data from position localization sensors

A system and method are provided for controlling a wind turbine. Accordingly, a controller of the wind turbine determines a thermal gradient of the tower due to solar heating. The controller also determines a displacement of a reference point of the wind turbine from a nominal position resulting from a thermal expansion of a portion of the tower. The displacement includes a displacement magnitude and a displacement direction. The displacement direction is in a radial direction opposite of a maximal peak of the thermal gradient. Additionally, the controller determines a correction factor corresponding to the displacement and a setpoint for a component of the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the correction factor. Finally, an operating state of the wind turbine is established based, at least in part, on the setpoint.

System and method for controlling a wind turbine

A system and method are provided for controlling a wind turbine based on a collective pitch-offset. Accordingly, a wind condition acting on a rotor of the wind turbine is determined, and a first collective pitch angle for the plurality of rotor blades is set, and the wind turbine is operated. A thrust of the rotor based, at least in part, on the wind condition is determined, and an actual collective pitch angle is calculated. A collective pitch offset is determined based on the difference between the first collective pitch angle and the actual collective pitch angle. The collective pitch offset is integrated with at least one pitch setpoint command. The at least one pitch setpoint command is transmitted to a pitch control mechanism of the wind turbine.

System and method for controlling a wind turbine based on a collective pitch-offset

A system and method are provided for controlling a wind turbine of a wind farm. Accordingly, a controller determines a performance differential for the wind turbine at multiple sampling intervals of a yaw event. The controller determines a trendline for the wind turbine correlating the performance differential to a deviation of a wind direction at each of the multiple sampling intervals from an first yaw angle. A difference between an angle associated with the vertex of the trendline and the first yaw angle are utilized by the controller to determine a yaw angle offset. The yaw angle offset is used to adjust a second yaw angle of the wind turbine.

Systems and methods for controlling a wind turbine

A system and method are provided for determining a geographic location of a tower top pivot point (TPP) of a wind turbine tower having a nacelle that includes a machine head and rotor at a top thereof. At least one rover receiver of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is configured at a fixed position on the nacelle. A plurality of 360-degree yaw sweeps of the nacelle are conducted and the geo-location signals received by the rover receiver during the yaw sweeps are recorded. With a controller, the geo-location signals are converted into a circular plot and a radius of the plot is determined, the radius being a distance between the rover receiver and the TPP. Based on a GNSS geo-location of the rover receiver and the radius, a geo-location of the TPP is computed.

Method and system for determining and tracking the top pivot point of a wind turbine tower

A method for controlling loads of a wind turbine includes receiving sensor signals from one or more sensors being indicative of a movement of a nacelle of the wind turbine from a reference point. More particularly, the movement corresponds, at least, to a tilt and/or a displacement of the wind turbine tower and/or nacelle. The method also includes generating a deflection profile of the tower along its overall length from a bottom end to a top end thereof based on the sensor signals. Further, the method includes determining at least one of a thrust or a tower load of the wind turbine from the deflection profile. In addition, the method includes implementing a control action for the wind turbine based on the thrust and/or the tower load.

System and method for controlling thrust and/or tower loads of a wind turbine

A power generation system is provided. The system includes a bus, at least two converters, an energy-type energy storage unit (ES), a power-type energy storage unit (PS) and a controller. The ES and the PS are coupled in parallel to the bus through corresponding converters of the at least two converters. The controller is configured to control the ES and the PS through the corresponding converters in at least two conditions during a charging mode and a discharging mode: when a power for the ES and PS is below a power threshold, control the power to flow between the ES and the bus; and when the power is above the power threshold, control a part of the power to flow between the ES and the bus and another part of the power to flow between the PS and the bus. And a method for generating power is also provided.

Power generation system and method with energy management

A ventilation arrangement for a wind turbine includes an air inlet opening located in a nose cone of said wind turbine, a manhole cover for covering a manhole of a rotor hub of said wind turbine, the manhole cover providing a vent opening for venting hot air from an internal space of said rotor hub, and a flexible piping establishing fluid communication between the internal space of the rotor hub and the air inlet opening.

Ventilation arrangement

A method for operating a wind turbine. The method includes providing a wind turbine having at least one blade having adjustable pitch angle that is adjusted according to an operational parameter schedule. A blade efficiency parameter is determined in response to a wind speed and a rotor speed. A minimum pitch angle is determined in response to the blade efficiency parameter and the pitch angle of the at least one blade in response to the blade efficiency parameter is maintained to an angle equal to or greater than the minimum pitch angle independent of the operational parameter schedule. A wind turbine plant and a method for servicing a wind turbine are also disclosed.

Blade pitch management method and system

A method of controlling a wind turbine that includes at least one rotor shaft and at least one blade operatively coupled to the rotor shaft includes measuring a first wind turbine operational condition that is representative of a blade deflection value and generating a first operational condition signal based on that first wind turbine operational condition. The wind turbine also includes a drive train including at least one rotor shaft and an electric generator. The method also includes measuring at least one second wind turbine operational condition and generating at least one second operational condition signal. The method further includes changing the blade deflection value by changing the second operational condition.

Wind turbine farm and method of controlling at least one wind turbine

A method for monitoring wear of a blade pitch brake within a rotor blade pitch control system of a wind turbine is described. The rotor blade pitch control system includes a blade pitch actuator. The method includes engaging the blade pitch brake and measuring a blade pitch displacement while the blade pitch brake is engaged. The method further includes determining a brake wear level based on the measured blade pitch displacement while the blade pitch brake is engaged, and generating a brake wear level output signal corresponding to the brake wear level.

Methods and systems for monitoring operation of a wind turbine

In one embodiment, a data storage media comprises: a substrate comprising at least one plastic portion, an edge lift height of less than about 8&#x3bc;, and an axial displacement peak of less than about 500&#x3bc; under shock or vibration excitation; and at least one data layer on said substrate. The data layer can be at least partly read from, written to, or a combination thereof by at least one energy field, and, when the energy field contacts the storage media, the energy field is incident upon the data layer before it could be incident upon the substrate. In another embodiment, the data storage media comprises: a substrate comprising at least one plastic portion and an axial displacement peak of less than about 500&#x3bc; under shock or vibration excitation, and an areal density of about 10 Gbit/in; and at least one data layer on the substrate. The data layer can be at least partly read from, written to, or a combination thereof by at least one energy field, and, when the energy field contacts the storage media, the energy field is incident upon the data layer before it could be incident upon the substrate.

Data storage media utilizing a substrate including a plastic resin layer, and method thereof

Growing community of inventors

Schenectady, NY, United States of America

Bernard P Landa