General Electric Company

Jorge Gonzalez Castro

Enno Ubben

Till Hoffmann

Jeffrey Alan Melius

Hubert Oing

Karthikeyan Appuraj

Abhijeet Mazumdar

A system and method for operating a wind farm connected to a power grid, the wind farm having one or more wind turbines includes implementing a shutdown mode for the one or more wind turbines of the wind farm in response to receiving a shutdown command. The shutdown mode includes disconnecting the one or more wind turbines of the wind farm from the power grid via one or more respective individual turbine controllers and reducing, via the individual turbine controllers, a rotor speed of the one or more wind turbines to a cut-in speed. After the shutdown command is cleared, the method further includes reconnecting the one or more wind turbines to the power grid.

System and method for operating a wind farm for fast connection after farm shutdown

A method for testing capacity of at least one energy storage device of a pitch drive mechanism to drive a first rotor blade of a wind turbine connected to a power grid includes defining a rotor position range for implementing a first test procedure for the energy storage device(s). Further, the method includes monitoring a rotor position of the first rotor blade. When the rotor position of the first rotor blade enters the rotor position range, the method includes initiating the first test procedure. The first test procedure includes pitching the first rotor blade via the energy storage device(s), measuring at least one operating condition of the energy storage device(s) during pitching, and determining a capacity of the energy storage device(s) to drive the first rotor blade based on the operating condition(s) thereof.

System and method for testing an energy storage device of a wind turbine pitch system

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for reducing vortex-induced vibrations of a tower of a wind turbine. The wind turbine has a nacelle mounted atop the tower. The nacelle has a rotor with a rotatable hub having at least one rotor blade mounted thereto. The rotor blade has a first pitch position. Thus, the method includes measuring, via one or more sensors, an acceleration of the nacelle. The method also includes determining a rotor speed of the rotor. Further, the method includes determining a second pitch position for the rotor blade based on the acceleration of the nacelle and the rotor speed and pitching the rotor blade to the second pitch position if the rotor speed is below a speed threshold and the acceleration of the nacelle is above an acceleration threshold. As such, the second pitch position disturbs vortices caused by interactions between the tower and the rotor blade as the rotor blade passes in front of the tower so as to reduce vortex-induced vibrations of the tower.

System and method for reducing vortex-induced tower vibrations of a wind turbine

A system and method for detecting ice on a rotor blade of a wind turbine are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method may include releasing a pitch brake of a pitch adjustment mechanism associated with the rotor blade, controlling the pitch adjustment mechanism so as to maintain the rotor blade at a fixed pitch angle, monitoring a pitch-related parameter of the wind turbine while the rotor blade is maintained at the fixed pitch angle, and analyzing the monitored pitch-related parameter to determine whether ice is present on the rotor blade.

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Berlin, Germany

Jorge Gonzalez Castro