Wind turbine control to maximise power production with a thrust limit

Abstract

The invention relates to controlling a wind turbine. A predefined power coefficient data structure and a predefined thrust coefficient data structure respectively comprise values of a power coefficient and a thrust coefficient as functions of blade pitch angle and tip speed ratio. The invention includes using an iterative search algorithm to determine values of pitch angle and tip speed ratio that maximise the power coefficient value in the predefined power coefficient data structure subject to a constraint that the thrust coefficient value in the predefined thrust coefficient data structure is no greater than a maximum threshold thrust coefficient value. A rotor speed reference is determined based on the determined tip speed ratio value and on a received wind speed. The determined pitch angle value is set as a pitch angle reference. The wind turbine is controlled in accordance with the pitch angle and tip speed ration references.