GIS enabled decision support system for IEC 61400-12-1'S reference meteorological mast siting

Abstract

One of the available warranty verification methods established between developer and supplier of a wind farm is the power curve measurement. Under the guidance of IEC 61400-12-1, should the wind regime conditions vary significantly from the reference mast to the turbine location, a site calibration must be performed to reduce and quantify the variation. Additionally, neighboring turbines and obstacles disturb the wind flow, narrowing the allowable measurement sectors. One must ensure that the reference mast position exposure is optimal within the vicinity and still comply with IEC61400-12-1 requirements. Furthermore, as usual practice in Portugal, the reference mast later becomes one of the wind farm’s masts, providing wind and climatic data for the wind farm owner. The work presented consists in the optimization of the siting of meteorological stations within wind farms, using a decision support system capable of attending to the guidelines of the measurement of power performance curve tests of a wind turbine, and also on the requirements to properly follow-up the wind farm for the duration of its operational life time. Integer programming optimization techniques provides an optimal solutions or a group of hierarchic solutions to allow the best location of the meteorological mast for a maxim dominant wind exposure. A comparison between business as usual and an application of this methodology is presented, with encouraging results. To our best knowledge, this methodology is the first to provide a quantitative approach for reference mast siting, maximizing its exposure to relevant wind regimes.