Wind Turbine Performance Analysis of An Offshore Wind Farm in China

Comparing to onshore wind power plants, the performance measurements of offshore wind turbines are much more difficult, because of the high costs of building anemometer towers, the instability of wireless data communication on the sea, the poor accessibility due to variable weather conditions, and the influence of periodical tide level, etc. In this study, measurements of three different wind turbines were of different types. The incoming free stream wind velocities were measured by 3D scanning lidars, mounted on the base platform of the targeted wind turbine tower with a built-in real time data sharing system. The efficiencies were calculated, and power curves were generated for the three testing wind turbines. Nacelle Transfer Function (NTF) was developed, to analyze the power performance of the other turbines with the same type and manufacturer. Further study on the overall performance was also carried out with these calculations, together with wake influence and some other factors. Moreover, valuable experiences on how to solve unpredictable problems of offshore wind farm measurements were provided.