General Electric Company

Prashanth Reddy Vaddi

Mark Edward Cardinal

Pranav Agarwal

Robert Peter Slack

A method for protecting a wind turbine from an extreme change in wind direction includes receiving a wind direction and/or a wind speed at the wind turbine. When a change in the wind direction or the wind speed exceeds a predetermined threshold, the method includes determining a margin to stall and/or zero lift of the at least one rotor blade of the wind turbine as a function of an angle of attack or change in the angle of attack at a blade span location of at least one rotor blade of the wind turbine. The method also includes implementing a corrective action for the wind turbine (without shutting down the wind turbine) when the margin to stall and/or zero lift exceeds a predetermined value so as to avoid stall and/or negative lift on the at least one rotor blade during operation of the wind turbine.

System and method for protecting wind turbines during extreme wind direction change

The present disclosure is directed to a system for controlling a pitch angle of a rotor blade of a wind turbine. The system includes a pitch adjustment mechanism for adjusting the pitch angle of the rotor blade and a controller communicatively coupled to the pitch adjustment mechanism. The controller is configured to determine a wind asymmetry parameter based on an operating parameter of the wind turbine. The controller is also configured to determine first and second signal components of the wind asymmetry parameter, which are respectively indicative of a maximum load on a first wind turbine component and fatigue on a second wind turbine component. The controller is also configured to calculate a wear parameter based on the first and second signal components and initiate an adjustment of the pitch angle of the rotor blade based on the wear parameter.

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Bengaluru, India

Prashanth Reddy Vaddi