General Electric Company

Timothy Botsford Cribbs

Joerg Middendorf

Mark Edward Cardinal

Enno Ubben

Danian Zheng

Minesh Ashok Shah

Jignesh Govindlal Gandhi

Andreas Kirchner

William E Holley

Anthony William Galbraith

Conner Brooks Shane

Paul Oliver Caffrey

Xiongzhe Huang

William Borea Noto

Christopher Lee Tschappatt

Raveendra Penmatsa

Rajagolalan Srinivasan

William Edwin Holley

Joerg Middendof

Anthony Galbraith

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for autonomous yaw control of a wind turbine. The method includes measuring, via a wind sensor, one or more wind conditions near the wind turbine. Another step includes receiving, via a distributed inputs and outputs (I/O) module, the one or more wind conditions from the wind sensor. The method also includes determining, via the distributed I/O module, a control signal for a yaw drive mechanism of the wind turbine as a function of the one or more wind conditions. Further, the yaw drive mechanism is configured to modify an orientation of a nacelle of the wind turbine. Thus, the method also includes controlling, via the distributed I/O module, the yaw drive mechanism based on the control signal.

Autonomous yaw control for a wind turbine

A system and method for reducing oscillation loads of a wind turbine induced by high turbulence and/or combined with other environmental conditions are provided. The method includes determining at least one wind parameter at the wind turbine; monitoring an operating condition of the wind turbine; determining, by a processor, a variance of at least one of the monitored operating condition or a plurality of the wind parameters, wherein the variance is indicative of an oscillation occurring at one or more wind turbine components; determining, by a processor, an operating set point based on the variance; and, operating the wind turbine based on the operating set point when the variance indicates that the oscillation has a frequency within a certain frequency band so as to modify the frequency, wherein the modified frequency is outside of the frequency band and reduces oscillation loads occurring at the one or more wind turbine components.

System and method for reducing oscillation loads of wind turbine

A method for operating a wind turbine includes receiving a value of a sensor and comparing the value with a reference, determining depending on the comparison between the value with the reference whether a malfunction of the wind turbine is present; determining the cause of the malfunction of the wind turbine depending on at least one of: the sensor type or the measured value, wherein the cause determination includes: automatically creating a first list including at least one possible cause of the malfunction depending on the sensor type or the measured value; and automatically creating a second list including a sequence of at least two steps, wherein a first step of the second list is based on the a cause selected from the first list and a second step of the second list is automatically determined based on a result of the first step.

Method and system for operating a wind turbine

A rotor blade monitoring system for use with a wind turbine. The wind turbine includes at least one rotor blade. The rotor blade includes a sidewall that extends between a root portion and a tip portion. The rotor blade monitoring system includes a fiber optic strand that is coupled to the rotor blade sidewall. The fiber optic strand has a length that extends from the root portion towards the tip portion. A plurality of sensors are coupled to the fiber optic strand. Each sensor of the plurality of sensors is axially spaced along the fiber optic strand and is configured to transmit a signal indicative of a position of a respective portion of the rotor blade.

Systems and methods for monitoring a condition of a rotor blade for a wind turbine

Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems and methods for controlling power in renewable solar energy sources. According to an example embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for controlling a renewable energy solar farm, where the farm may include one or more renewable energy sources. The method may include measuring aggregate energy output of the renewable energy solar farm and measuring individual source energy output of the one or more renewable energy sources. The method may also include controlling energy production from the one or more renewable energy sources via a controller based at least in part on the measured aggregate energy output and the measured individual source energy output, where the controller facilitates communications with the one or more renewable energy sources.

Integrated real-time power and solar farm control system

The invention provides a system and method for analyzing an anomalous condition. The method includes providing sensor output from at least one sensor used to measure information pertaining to the status of a process, receiving the output from the at least one sensor, and extracting at least one representative value that is characteristic of a pattern expressed in the output. Data is retrieved from a knowledge base, the data including a plurality of representative values. The knowledge base also includes information which maps the representative values to associated anomalous conditions. The method further includes analyzing the representative value output from the extracting step with respect to the data stored in the knowledge base, and generating a diagnostic result which diagnoses an anomalous condition in the process. The method then uses the diagnostic result to effect corrective action to the process by adjusting at least one actuator.

System and method for detecting an anomalous condition

A technique for analyzing an anomalous condition in a process for producing a product is described, where the process includes plural subprocesses for performing operations on the product. The technique includes: (a) for each of the subprocesses, providing sensor output from at least one sensor used to measure information pertaining to the status of the respective subprocess; (b) for each of the subprocesses, extracting at least one representative value that is characteristic of a pattern expressed in the output, thus generating a plurality of representative values for the process as a whole; (c) retrieving data from a knowledge base, the data including a plurality of representative values, and also including information which maps the representative values to associated anomalous conditions; (d) analyzing the plurality of representative values output from the parameter extracting step with respect to the data stored in the knowledge base, and for generating a diagnostic result which diagnoses an anomalous condition in the process, and also identifies at least one of the subprocesses which has caused the anomalous condition; and (e) using the diagnostic result to affect corrective action to the at least one of the subprocesses which has caused the anomalous condition by adjusting at least one actuator that controls the at least one subprocess.

System and method for detecting an anomalous condition in a multi-step process

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Roanoke, VA, United States of America

Timothy Botsford Cribbs